Langerhans islet within the pancreas.
© iNOVA4Health

Belgian reMYND N.V. has out licenced worldwide commercialisation rights for its small molecule programme ReS39 in diabetes to Novo Nordisk A/S. The drug impedes death of insulin-producing beta cells by preventing the formation of cytotoxic islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) aggregates.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infected Human Dendritic Cells. Mtb appear as isolated or grouped red-purple stained rods. Kinyoun staining. Optical mycrocoscopy 20x. © Roberto Nisini/Sci Transl Med. (stm.sciencemag.org)

A new, non-invasive tuberculosis urine test prevents common disadvantages of the standard tuberculin skin test: Measuring lipoarabinomannan glycan from M. tuberculosis, it detects the active disease in early stage and does not interfere with co-infections or weakened immune system.

Life sciences investment group LSP has launched the largest fund in Europe dedicated to late-stage medical technology assets, including diagnostics and digital health.

Frederic Rousseau and Joost Schymkowitz, ©VIB-Ine Dehandschutter

Belgian start-up company Aelin Therapeutics NV secured the funds to push development of candidate drugs arising from its Pept-in protein knockdown platform, which harnesses protein aggregation to induce functional knockdown of target proteins.

agenX

Dutch llama antibody specialist ArgenX met the safety endpoint in a Phase II trial with ARGX 113 (efgartigimod), a first-in-class antibody that lowers pathogenic levels of IgG, in patients with the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis.

sphingotest® immunoassay principle. 
© sphingotec GmbH

In vitro diagnostics leader Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (Raritan, US) expands his assay portfolio with Sphingotec’s first-in-class biomarker test that predicts residual edema and re-hospitalization in patients with congestive heart failure.

French based Advicenne has raised a €27m IPO on Euronext Paris, to develop paediatric-friendly therapeutics for the treatment of orphan renal and neurological diseases.

Action of oxytocin and vasopressin in the human brain. © Marcos Otero García_University of Valencia

A European-Australian team of researchers has created a synthetic version of oxytocin that does not show the off-target effects mediated by its chemical analogon vasopressin.

Roche company Foundation Medicine Inc. (FMI) has been granted FDA approval for a diagnostic multiplex tumour profiling assay, which identifies a broad range of tumour markers in one single measurement.

C. difficile is emerging as a leading cause of life threatening, health-care acquired infections worldwide. © CDC

The decision of the vaccine arm of French drug giant Sanofi was based on an independent interim analysis of a pivotal Phase III study enroling up to 16,500 people at risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) for vaccination with the jab that has FDA Fast Track designation.