Oxford-based Intrexion-subsidiary Oxitec plans to release male GM mosquitoes that produce nonviable offspring in India, in order to limit the spread of dengue and chikungunya fevers transmitted by Aedes aegyptii.
Two biotech CEOs have been selected by the European Commission for the High Level Group. The EU think tank will provide strategic input to Horizon 2020 and a €2.5bn fund to support innovation by 2020 in order to boost disruptive technologies and to address gaps in in the current innovation support landscape.
While German Nasdaq company Affimed (AFMD) had an accumulated loss of over €100m, an annual development cost of about €38m for its Tandab pipeline, and an income of only about €8m from collaborations at the end of 2015, the company is trying to bulk up its funds through a public offering of common stock.
Belgian start-up company Octimet Oncology NV has secured €11.3m in a series A financing round. The funds will be used to develop two MET kinase blockers to treat solid tumours.
Drug screening expert Evotec AG and Ontario-based MaRS Innovation have launched the joint venture company Fibrocor Therapeutics LP to tackle fibrosis, an unmet medical need and multi-billion US dollars market.
Scientists at EPFL have developed a technique that can be a game-changer for genetics by making the characterisation of DNA-binding proteins much faster, more accurate, and efficient.
German Wilex has licensed its clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) antibody Redectane to Australian biopharma company Telix Pharmaceuticals. Redectane is a radiolabeled version of Wilex’ Phase III therapeutic antibody girentuximab.
Severe economic and environmental damage: A study commissioned by EU industry association Euroseeds says that the ban of a certain class of insecticides to protect bees causes a lot of ecologic and economic burden.
For thirty years, industry has worked hard to establish vaccines that can cure cancer. At the 35th JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, German Curevac reported another failure. It remains open whether cancer vaccines or co-administration of other drug classes to immune checkpoint modulators can break solid tumour’s immune tolerance tactics.
German researchers have found a biomarker that reliably predicts outcomes of blood cancer treatment with the chemotherapeutic cytarabine. Targeting the biomarker restored cytarabine sensitivity.