Category: News & Comments

23andMe Teams Up with Novartis on Lipoprotein(a) Education for its Customers

23andMe Aims To Raise Awareness of Lipoprotein(a), a Little-Known Genetic Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease March 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In support of Lipoprotein(a) Awareness Day, 23andMe Holding Co. (ME) announced a collaboration with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NVS) to increase awareness for Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)). The Information to Learn High levels of Lp(a) are associated with increased risk of heart attack, stroke and other life …

As Expected, Seagen Was Taken Over, the Buyer is Pfizer.

Pfizer to Acquire Seagen Pfizer (PFE) is to acquire Seagen (SGEN) for $229 per share in cash, for a total enterprise value of approximately $43 billion Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Pfizer is deploying its financial resources to advance the battle against cancer, a leading cause of death worldwide with a significant impact on public health. Together, Pfizer and Seagen …

XyloCor Therapeutics Reported Positive Safety and Efficacy Results of XC001 Novel Gene Therapy for Refractory Angina

XyloCor Therapeutics Announced Positive Results for XC001 XyloCor Therapeutics announced the completion of the Phase 2 portion of its Phase 1/2 clinical trial (EXACT) designed to assess the safety and preliminary evidence of efficacy of lead gene therapy candidate XC001 (encoberminogene rezmadenovec) in patients with refractory angina. The EXACT clinical trial met both safety and efficacy objectives. There were no safety issues related to drug product or …

From bluebird bio: FDA Accelerated Approval for SKYSONA® Gene Therapy for Early, Active Cerebral Adrenoleukodystrophy

FDA Approves bluebird bio Product Skysona for Early, Active CALD SKYSONA is the first FDA approved therapy shown to slow the progression of neurologic dysfunction in boys with this devastating and fatal neurodegenerative disease. The U.S. FDA has granted Accelerated Approval of bluebird bio’s (BLUE) SKYSONA® (elivaldogene autotemcel), also known as eli-cel. SKYSONA® is indicated to slow the progression of neurologic dysfunction in boys 4-17 …

Intellia Therapeutics to Present Data from Clinical Trial of NTLA-2002 Aimed at Treating Hereditary Angioedema

Intellia Therapeutics to Present Interim Clinical Data from NTLA-2002 Trial for Hereditary Angioedema An abstract featuring interim clinical data from the Phase 1/2 study of Intellia Therapeutics’ (NTLA) product NTLA-2002 has been selected for an oral presentation at the 2022 Bradykinin Symposium, taking place September 15-16 in Berlin, Germany. NTLA-2002 NTLA-2002 is an investigational in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 therapy in development as a single-dose treatment to prevent …

Hutchmed: Treating Advanced Metastatic Colorectal Cancer and Other Treatment Resistant Cancers

Hutchmed: Treating Advanced Refractory Metastatic Colorectal Cancer On August 8, 2022, Hutchmed (HCM) announced that pivotal global Phase 3 FRESCO-2 trial evaluating the investigational use of fruquintinib met its primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced, refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). The FRESCO-2 Study A multi-regional clinical trial conducted in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Australia demonstrates that investigated fruquintinib plus best supportive …

Avista Therapeutics Partners with Roche to Develop Advanced AAV Gene Therapy Vectors for Ocular Diseases

Avista Therapeutics Avista Therapeutics’ mission is to develop innovative gene therapies for retinal diseases, including rare ophthalmic conditions that have a profound impact on patients’ quality of life. Avista leverages its computationally guided single-cell adeno-associated virus engineering (scAAVengr) platform to generate and validate a toolkit of proprietary AAV vectors that target specific cell types using minimally invasive intravitreal delivery with reduced dosages. Avista’s quantitative, in …

CytomX Therapeutics Provided an Important Strategic Update

CytomX Therapeutics Update CytomX Therapeutics (CTMX) announced plans to focus on its emerging preclinical and early clinical pipeline and realign its capital resources to drive these efforts. Sean McCarthy, D.Phil. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, CytomX Therapeutics, said, “With the Probody® therapeutic platform, CytomX has pioneered a new and strategic field of biologics drug discovery and development. Our leadership position will continue as we incorporate …

Insilico Medicine: Identifying Multiple Novel Therapeutic Targets for ALS AI-driven Target Discovery Engine

Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine is a clinical stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques to discover novel targets and to design novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is delivering breakthrough …

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Type 1 Diabetes

Vertex Pharmaceuticals to Announce New Data on VX-880 Clinical Trial Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) announced three abstracts, including two oral presentations and one poster, detailing data on type 1 diabetes (T1D) and its Phase 1/2 trial of VX-880, a stem cell-derived, fully differentiated pancreatic islet cell replacement therapy. The Abstracts have been accepted for presentation during the American Diabetes Association 82nd Annual Scientific Sessions Conference held …

An Important Reminder from Vir Biotechnology

Vir Biotechnology  Vir Biotechnology (VIR) is a commercial-stage immunology firm focused on combining immunologic insights with cutting-edge technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. Vir assembled four technology platforms that stimulate and enhance the immune system by exploiting critical observations of natural immune processes. Vir’s current pipeline consists of product candidates targeting COVID-19, hepatitis B and hepatitis D viruses, influenza A and human immunodeficiency virus. …

Eisai and Biogen: Lecanemab for the Treament of Early Alzheimer’s DIisease

Eisai and Biogen Inc: Lecanemab Eisai and Biogen Inc. (BIIB) announced that Eisai has completed the rolling submission to the U.S. FDA of a Biologics License Application (BLA) under the accelerated approval pathway for the investigational anti-amyloid beta (Aβ) protofibril antibody lecanemab (BAN2401). The  product is for mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild AD (collectively known as early AD) with confirmed presence …

Sunshine Biopharma’s New mRNA Therapeutics Killed Cancer Cells with Little or No Adverse Effects

Sunshine Biopharma mRNA Therapeutics Effective at Destroying Cancer Cells Sunshine Biopharma, Inc. (SBFM) –  a pharmaceutical company focused on research, development and commercialization of oncology and antiviral drugs, announced that two of its newly designed mRNA molecules are effective at destroying cancer cells grown in culture. The cytotoxicity tests were performed on a variety of cancer cells including the following cancers: Multidrug resistant breast cancer …

Reata Pharmaceuticals Completed Rolling NDA Submission of Omaveloxolone for Friedreich’s Ataxia

Reata Pharmaceuticals Completed Rolling NDA Submission for Omaveloxolone for Friedreich’s Ataxia Reata Pharmaceuticals (RETA) announced the completion of the rolling submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. FDA for omaveloxolone’s treatment of Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). The NDA is supported by the efficacy and safety data from the MOXIe Part 1, Part 2 and MOXIe Extension studies. The FDA has granted Fast Track …

Intellia Therapeutics Statement on Recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Decision

Intellia Therapeutics Statement on Recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Decision – In May 2012, the Regents of University of California, University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, “CVC”) filed a patent application for their CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. The CVC team led by Drs. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier promptly brought these discoveries to the public, and in June 2012 published a seminal paper …

These Dangerous World Circumstances and the Prohost Portfolio

The circumstances that we find the world in today are abnormal. They are extremely intense and dangerous. We are living  an unprecedented, unexpected and inexplicable  war in Europe, which nobody seems to know how it would end up.  When it comes to the  Market, the degree of chaos, mysteries and destruction have far exceeded our ability to fairly evaluate our selected  biotech picked firms. We …

The FDA Authorized Emergency Use of Pfizer Paxlovid Pills Against COVID-19

Pfizer Received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA for Paxlovid Pills for COVID-19 Good news for Pfizer (PFE), the U.S. FDA announced it has authorized the emergency use of PAXLOVID™ for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kg) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that cause COVID-19) viral testing …

The FDA Cleared the IND for Erasca Inc Product ERAS-801 for Recurrent Glioblastoma

Erasca Inc Product ERAS-801 IND Cleared by FDA Erasca Inc (ERAS) announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared an investigational new drug (IND) application for ERAS-801, an orally available small molecule epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor specifically designed to have high central nervous system (CNS) penetration for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (rGBM). In the meantime, the company entered into …

Takeda Pharmaceutical Product LIVTENCITY Granted Approval by the FDA

Takeda Pharmaceutical Granted FDA Approval for LIVTENCITY for Post-Transplant Cytomegalovirus On November 23, 2021 Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (TAK) announced that the U.S. FDA has approved LIVTENCITY™ (maribavir) for adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age or older and weighing at least 35 kg) with post-transplant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection/disease that is refractory to treatment (with or without genotypic resistance) with ganciclovir, valganciclovir, cidofovir or …

Intellia Therapeutics to Highlight Ex Vivo Genome Editing and CRISPR/Cas9 Manufacturing Advances at ASH

Intellia Therapeutics to Present at ASH Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) announced the presentation of data from its ex vivo research and development efforts in two poster presentations at the 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition taking place in Atlanta, GA, as well as virtually, December 11-14, 2021. From the CSO at Intellia Therapeutics Laura Sepp-Lorenzino, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Intellia Therapeutics, said, “As we continue to …