Portuguese and Swiss scientists have discovered that neurons located at mucosal tissues can immediately detect an infection in the organism, promptly producing a substance that acts as an "adrenaline rush" for immune cells.
Swiss cancer vaccine developer AMAL Therapeutics has raised €8m in a Series B round led by existing investor Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, and new investors BioMedPartners and Helsinn Investment Fund.
Six European states, together with the Wellcome Trust, and South Africa have pledged €56.5m to help develop new antibiotics that break resistance.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have invented a new algorithm that could revolutionise patient monitoring and activity tracking.
French Ajinomoto Eurolysine SAS, part of the world leading producer of amino acids by fermentation, has received a positive safety assessment from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for use of freeze-dried genetically modified E. coli bacteria as a feedstuff supplement.
Swiss Novartis AG has received US market authorisation for its first-in-class CAR-T cell therapy Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel-T). As severe cytokine storms seemed to be generally linked to CAR-T therapies such as Kymriah, the FDA also authorised Roche’s anti-IL-6R antibody Actemra (tocilizumab) as first-in-class treatment to manage them.
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted US market authorisation to Boehringer Ingelheim’s biosimilar anti-TNFa-antibody adalimumab.
Supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €25m loan to the Austrian pediatric cancer specialist Apeiron Biologics AG to boost its pipeline of antibodies, fusion proteins and low molecular weight checkpoint inhibitors.
In mid-June, the German Federal Constitutional Court asked the German President not to sign legislation designed to implement the EU Unified Patent Court (UPC, EU Agreement 16351/12) and Unitary Patent (EU Regulation 1257/12). Now, there are hints for a further delay. The constitutional complaint behind the delay, rumoured to be brought up by a German life sciences IP expert, has led to a stop of hiring German judges for the UPC.
Danish Genmab A/S’ anti-CD38 antibody daratumumab has met the endpoint of progression-free survival in an interim analysis of Genmab’s pivotal Phase III study aimed at receiving FDA approval as first-line therapy in multiple myeloma.