Roche is trying to offer a solution for patient selection in immunooncology. At the ESMO congress in Madrid, the theranostics company presented a liquid biopsy test that measures the tumour mutational burden in order to predict the probability for response to immunotherapy.
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.