Biotechnology Sector

Credit: Olkan Erguler Numbers of two Mediterranean turtle species have risen in the last three decades – but in Cyprus the recoveries are happening at different rates, new research shows. Nest counts at 28 beaches show green turtle nests increased by 162% from 1993 to 2019, while loggerhead nests rose by 46%. The research team

Whole mitochondrial DNA sequencing of the three extant species of the aquatic mammal shows that they first split from their common ancestor after geological events isolated the South American region from the sea Credit: Erica Martinho All three species of manatee now present on Earth share a common ancestor from which they split some 6.5

Credit: Jennifer McCann,Penn State As more private data is stored and shared digitally, researchers are exploring new ways to protect data against attacks from bad actors. Current silicon technology exploits microscopic differences between computing components to create secure keys, but artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be used to predict these keys and gain access to

But in a surprising finding, pediatricians are far more apt to act if parents independently express concerns Credit: Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences Since it debuted in 2011, the Get SET Early program, which provides pediatricians and parents with a relatively simple process to screen for indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children

Phase II study by Penn Medicine shows rucaparib helped control cancer growth in patients with BRCA or PALB2 Credit: Penn Medicine PHILADELPHIA–More than two-thirds of pancreatic cancer patients harboring genetic mutations saw their tumor stop growing or shrink substantially after being switched from intensive chemotherapy to the PARP inhibitor rucaparib as a maintenance therapy, researchers

Findings on Neanderthal oral microbiomes offer new clues on evolution, health Credit: Katerina Guschanski A new study looking at the evolutionary history of the human oral microbiome shows that Neanderthals and ancient humans adapted to eating starch-rich foods as far back as 100,000 years ago, which is much earlier than previously thought. The findings suggest

Credit: Jacob Lund / Shutterstock Your local city park may be improving your health, according to a new paper led by Stanford University researchers. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lays out how access to nature increases people’s physical activity – and therefore overall health – in cities. Lack of

Credit: (Photo courtesy of Celie Intering) MISSOULA – University of Montana Professor Mark Hebblewhite has joined an international team of 92 scientists and conservationists to create the first-ever global atlas of ungulate (hoofed mammal) migrations. Working in partnership with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, a U.N. treaty, the Global

Credit: MD Anderson Cancer Center HOUSTON – Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a first-of-its-kind spatial atlas of early-stage lung cancer and surrounding normal lung tissue at single-cell resolution, providing a valuable resource for studying tumor development and identifying new therapeutic targets. The study was published today in Cancer

University of Rochester researchers use vectorial time reversal to demonstrate enhanced channel capacity in a 1-km-long multimode fiber Credit: Illustration by Yiyu Zhou The use of multimode optical fibers to boost the information capacity of the Internet is severely hampered by distortions that occur during the transmission of images because of a phenomenon called modal

Researchers introduce new factor to explain stress while driving Credit: University of Houston Admit it: Daily commutes – those stops, the starts, all that stress – gets on your last nerve. Or is that just me? It might be, according to a new study from the University of Houston’s Computational Physiology Lab. UH Professor Ioannis

Thirty-nine teams from 12 countries participated in the BreastPathQ Grand Challenge to develop automated methods for analyzing microscopy images of breast tissue and assessing pathology Credit: Petrick et al., doi 10.1117/1.JMI.8.3.034501 Breast cancer has recently overtaken lung cancer to become the most common cancer globally, according to the World Health Organization. Advancing the fight against

Credit: Héctor Guzmán According to the International Whaling Commission, whale-watching tourism generates more than $2.5 billion a year. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this relatively safe outdoor activity is expected to rebound. Two new studies funded by a collaborative initiative between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and Arizona State University (ASU) show how

Credit: Virginia Tech In a newly published paper, Virginia Tech geoscientists have found that shallow wastewater injection — not deep wastewater injections — can drive widespread deep earthquake activity in unconventional oil and gas production fields. Brine is a toxic wastewater byproduct of oil and gas production. Well drillers dispose of large quantities of brine

COVID-flu combo vaccine from Novavax sparks immune response to both viruses in animals arlene.weintraub Mon, 05/10/2021 - 14:39

Attacking aging and chronic disease by eliminating 'senescent' cells with immunotherapy arlene.weintraub Mon, 05/10/2021 - 10:25

Bayer's near-approval Farxiga rival meets goal in 2nd phase 3 ntaylor Mon, 05/10/2021 - 08:20

The Covid-19 pandemic created an opportunity for many biotech companies to repurpose their existing programs into vaccines and treatments for the novel coronavirus. Cyxone’s CEO Tara Heitner and COO Malin Berthold discuss how they approached this shift at their company. Cyxone was founded in 2015 to develop drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Based in Malmö, Sweden, the company was set up as a virtual startup that worked with CRO partners to run clinical trials. In November 2019, Cyxone’s former CEO resigned. In mid-2020, Tara Heitner took over the position. Shortly after, the company started a program for Covid-19 based on its rheumatoid arthritis drug candidate. With the help of COO Malin Berthold, who had joined Cyxone in August 2019, Heitner has supervised the growth of the company, which now has six full-time employees. We asked Heitner and Berthold how the global pandemic created an opportunity for biotech companies such as Cyxone and how they handled the changes to test its lead rheumatoid arthritis candidate, The post The Rollercoaster of Repurposing an Arthritis Drug for Covid-19 appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Flagship debuts Laronde to develop RNA-based meds that could turn cells into protein factories aalidrus Sun, 05/09/2021 - 21:02

Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca's $5B Enhertu follow-up shows early signs of success in breast cancer badams Fri, 05/07/2021 - 10:17

Gene therapy biotech Gyroscope finds unnavigable seas on IPO market aarmstrong Fri, 05/07/2021 - 09:50

Adcomm experts split on whether to approve ChemoCentryx's avacopan ntaylor Fri, 05/07/2021 - 06:49

Galapagos cuts pipeline, targets €150M in savings after setbacks ntaylor Fri, 05/07/2021 - 06:07

Science 37 taps a SPAC to go public, with siteless trial specialist valued at a cool $1B badams Fri, 05/07/2021 - 04:15

CRISPR therapeutics, Nkarta pen new cutting-edge cancer tech research pact badams Fri, 05/07/2021 - 04:02

Chutes & Ladders—Former Merck R&D chief Perlmutter takes reins at Eikon, applying Nobel-winning tech to drug discovery fkansteiner Thu, 05/06/2021 - 17:21

Merck takes $170M charge on abandoned COVID-19 drug ntaylor Thu, 05/06/2021 - 08:49

Bluebird names oncology spinoff, establishes leadership team ntaylor Thu, 05/06/2021 - 08:11

A cancer vaccine built from stem cells? Stanford candidate shows promise in pancreatic tumors aliu Thu, 05/06/2021 - 06:08

Novavax shares in the red after vaccine sees 51% efficacy against South African COVID variant badams Thu, 05/06/2021 - 03:52

Dyno grabs $100M to expand tech, build team, ink more gene therapy partnerships aalidrus Wed, 05/05/2021 - 23:25

ChemoCentryx's stock sinks as FDA flags issues with pivotal data ntaylor Wed, 05/05/2021 - 08:15

Expelling cancer by squeezing out rogue cells aliu Wed, 05/05/2021 - 08:01

There’s promising early data on many potential Covid-19 treatments. Yet with vaccines in the spotlight, approved treatment options available to doctors remain few and far between. Last month, the UK government launched an Antivirals Taskforce to introduce new treatments for Covid-19 as early as this fall. Both in the UK and in the EU, the gap between ambition and performance is wide. So far, there currently is only one treatment approved for use by the EMA, Gilead’s remdesivir. By contrast, there are four approved vaccines in the EU and three under rolling review. Treatment developers say the hope put on vaccines may have motivated early funding choices that channeled resources away from therapies.   “Vaccines are expected to eradicate a virus in the best case,” said Christian Setz, Managing Director of the German biotech ImmunoLogik, which is developing a broad-spectrum antiviral that works against many coronaviruses. “Therefore, of course, a lot of funding was initially allocated to the development of a vaccine.” “On the other hand, The post Despite Many Candidates, Covid-19 Treatments Lag Behind Vaccines appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Perlmutter named CEO of Eikon, a biotech with $148M to apply Nobel-winning tech to undruggable targets ntaylor Wed, 05/05/2021 - 05:08

The development of continuous cell culture technologies is cutting the costs and resources required for biomanufacturing, benefiting biotech processes ranging from growing cultured meat to manufacturing drugs.   The idea of replacing livestock with cell culture to produce meat could reduce animal cruelty, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and would require far less land to produce equivalent amounts of meat. The process starts with taking cells from a live animal and culturing them in a bioreactor. A small sample grows into trillions of cells that turn into muscle and fat.  While cultured meat promises to be a food of the future that is both ethically and ecologically more viable than farming, we are still in need of technologies that allow scaling up and reducing costs enough to compete with traditional meat production. Continuous cell culture helps scale up production Traditional biomanufacturing largely relies on batch or fed-batch cultures. In batch cultures, the cells are allowed to grow for a fixed duration of time with all nutrients added at the beginning, The post Continuous Cell Culture Paves the Way for Better Biomanufacturing appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Pfizer halts BCMA trial amid safety woes, hit by DMD delay ntaylor Tue, 05/04/2021 - 08:57

Lilly takes variant-busting COVID-19 antibody into the clinic ntaylor Tue, 05/04/2021 - 07:55

Last month, the US firm bluebird bio abandoned the sale of its gene therapy Zynteglo in Germany after a pricing dispute with health authorities — a blow that could have repercussions for the rollout of other gene therapies in Europe. Zynteglo was approved in the EU in 2019 as the first-ever gene therapy for the blood disorder transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia. By early 2020, the company had made preparations with manufacturers, hospitals, and health insurers in Germany to roll out the treatment, with a huge price of over €1.5M per patient paid over five years.  However, the company recently revealed that the pricing negotiations in Germany had gone sour, with the health authority proposing a lower price than bluebird bio would accept. Hopes of commercializing Zynteglo in Germany have now been dashed. The company remains optimistic over plans in other European countries to market Zynteglo, but its announcement was accompanied by plans to reduce its workforce, primarily in Europe. This accompanies yet another setback this year, The post Bluebird Bio Withdrawal Raises Gene Therapy Doubts in Europe appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

To prevent contamination in biopharmaceutical products, operating procedures have to be carefully monitored throughout the development and manufacturing process. Incorporating automation and robotics into industrial microbiology workflows can help to identify and prevent contamination. Valerie Wittenberg, Head of Robotics and Automation for Industrial Microbiology, Merck We have spoken to Valerie Wittenberg, Head of Robotics and Automation for Industrial Microbiology at Merck about the role of industrial microbiology in the biopharmaceutical industry, how automation is being applied in industrial microbiology, how it influences data integrity, and how Merck supports its customers with automated technology to identify the presence of and prevent contamination in the industrial setting. What role does industrial microbiology play in the biopharmaceutical industry? The role of industrial microbiology is critical in the biopharmaceutical sector. Its purpose is to monitor contamination events and oversee the development of standard operating procedures to minimize the risk of contamination. If you look at injectable drugs, for example, contamination needs to be zero – there can’t be any bacteria in the final product – because it will be injected directly into the patients.  The post Accelerating Automation and Digitization in Industrial Microbiology appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Novartis loses 2nd oncology R&D exec as Hammerman leaves through the door left open by Engelman badams Tue, 05/04/2021 - 04:00

How new 'lung-on-a-chip' models from Harvard are advancing COVID-19 drug discovery arlene.weintraub Mon, 05/03/2021 - 08:55

Avrobio plans head-to-head Fabrazyme trial after FDA changes path to market ntaylor Mon, 05/03/2021 - 08:41

AstraZeneca's cancer R&D exec Ferté joins Relay to run its lead asset as another bluebird exec jumps ship badams Mon, 05/03/2021 - 08:38

As climate change looms over our future, many industries are turning to biotechnology for solutions to make all aspects of our lives more sustainable for the environment.   Biotechnology is uniquely positioned to replace polluting materials and chemical processes with more sustainable, biological alternatives. This scientific field draws from millions of years of evolution in which living beings have specialized in producing and recycling all kinds of compounds and materials. These biological processes can be used to efficiently break down waste and produce materials with lower pollution, water, land, and energy use than traditional methods. The number of applications where biotechnology could make a difference towards sustainability is virtually unlimited. Here are 10 of the areas where biotech is already making an impact.  Bioplastics Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental issues we’re currently facing. The waste from petrochemical plastic production plants, as well as the tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic that is thrown away daily, are huge problems for the environment. New technologies that incorporate biology in the production of plastics could offer a more sustainable alternative.  The post Ten Ways Biotechnology Makes the World More Sustainable appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

This is a guest post from Susan Finston and Nigel Thompson The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of the innovative biopharmaceutical industry as country after country went into (repeated) lock-down without recourse to vaccines or safe and effective therapies. Now in 2021, the increasing availability of a number of novel COVID-19 vaccines give The post Lessons of the COVID-19 Pandemic for the EU BioEconomy appeared first on Biotechblog.

Bristol Myers Squibb’s recent phase III success provided the first late-stage confirmation for a novel immune checkpoint target in nearly a decade. This could herald the next generation of checkpoint inhibitors against cancer. Last month, the antibody drug relatlimab, developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, increased the progression-free survival of melanoma patients in phase III. These promising results did more than support the efficacy of a single therapy. To many in the field, they validated the approach of targeting lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3) to treat cancer.  While the world waits for a full dataset from BMS’s phase III trial, LAG-3’s proponents in European biotechs and elsewhere are already knee-deep in development of the next wave of immune checkpoint inhibitors, for LAG-3 and beyond. When immune T cells are exposed to cancer or chronic infections for too long, they sometimes become exhausted, losing their ability to fight the invaders. Immune checkpoints like PD-1 and LAG-3, which function as brakes on the immune system, contribute to this T cell exhaustion, The post BMS’s Cancer Trial Highlights Potential for Checkpoint Inhibitors appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Annual Drug Patent Expirations for SUNOSI Sunosi is a drug marketed by Jazz and is included in one NDA. It is available from one supplier. There are eight patents protecting… The post New patent for JAZZ drug SUNOSI appeared first on DrugPatentWatch - ... The post New patent for JAZZ drug SUNOSI appeared first on Biotechblog.

This chart shows the pharmaceutical companies with the most spray dosed drugs. For a different perspective, see the most popular dosage types. The companies with the most spray dosed drugs… The post Which pharmaceutical companies have the most spray do... The post Which pharmaceutical companies have the most spray dosed drugs? appeared first on Biotechblog.

Company culture can be essential to the success of a biotech company. Sabine Dandiguian, Managing Partner at the life sciences VC firm Jeito Capital, shares her experience building a thriving company culture in the life sciences. Company culture is “something very special” that borders on collective intelligence, says Sabine Dandiguian. There are some basics to follow when building it. But there is also a sometimes elusive soft-skills component, which is strongly influenced by the personality of the leader and is as much an art to create as it is a science. It has to do with balancing hard work and strict roles and responsibilities with a capacity to listen and to care, but it goes beyond that. Dandiguian’s long experience as a life sciences business leader across different cultures, having worked in France, the Middle East, Turkey, and Algeria. She has coached numerous companies, from startups to large successful life science firms. In over two decades with Johnson and Johnson, her previous employer, she oversaw Janssen France reaching $1B in revenue, The post How to Build a Successful Company Culture in Biotech appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

This chart shows the drugs with the most patents in Spain. Patents must be filed in each country (or, in some cases regional patent office) where patent protection is desired.… The post Which pharmaceutical drugs have the most drug patents in Spain? ap... The post Which pharmaceutical drugs have the most drug patents in Spain? appeared first on Biotechblog.

While the EU saw rapid-fire approvals in the multiple sclerosis space last month, the innovations centered mostly on improving existing approaches. Which areas of multiple sclerosis treatment need more options? At the end of March, the EMA made key decisions on three treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic neurodegenerative disease affecting 2.5 million people worldwide.  The regulator greenlit Kesimpta, a drug developed by Novartis and licensed from the Danish biotech Genmab. The EMA also gave the nod to a subcutaneous version of an approved intravenous drug from Biogen called Tysabri. Finally, the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended the approval of Ponvory, a drug developed by Johnson & Johnson and approved by the FDA in mid-March. While the announcements seemed to coincide neatly, this was most likely due to chance, said Jon Moore, CEO of the UK biotech Pheno Therapeutics and Operating Partner at Advent Life Sciences. “These things can come along in threes just like buses sometimes do.” However, The post EMA Approvals for Multiple Sclerosis Highlight Treatment Shortfalls appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Drug discovery success starts with an active hit compound. Implementing a good hit identification approach like high-throughput screening at the beginning of a project can help companies advance their programs without unexpected costs and delays. The hit finding process – identifying a compound that acts on a biological target – is perhaps the single most crucial step in drug discovery, and often fails to get the attention it deserves. Regardless of whether the goal is to find small or large molecule drug candidates, medicinal chemists and protein engineers need to start with active compounds to improve and optimize into leads worthy of further development. The many approaches to hit identification Kevin Nash, Group Leader in Biology Assay Development High-Throughput Screening, Charles River Laboratories Various approaches can be used alone or in combination to find hits and confirm the activity of compounds of interest. Each comes with its own benefits. “High-throughput screening of diverse compound libraries can accelerate the discovery process,” said Kevin Nash, The post Finding Relevant Hits to Progress Drug Discovery Programs appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

VIBATIV (telavancin hydrochloride) Cumberland pharms Patent: 7,544,364 Expiration: May 1, 2021 See More … For more information on how DrugPatentWatch can help with your pharmaceutical business intelligence needs, contact admin@DrugPatentWatch.com… The ... The post Drug Patent Expirations for the Week of April 25, 2021 appeared first on Biotechblog.

Annual Drug Patent Expirations for VYXEOS Vyxeos is a drug marketed by Celator Pharms and is included in one NDA. It is available from one supplier. There are nine patents… The post New patent for Celator Pharms drug VYXEOS appeared first on DrugPatent... The post New patent for Celator Pharms drug VYXEOS appeared first on Biotechblog.

Annual Drug Patent Expirations for DRIZALMA+SPRINKLE Drizalma Sprinkle is a drug marketed by Sun Pharma Global and is included in one NDA. It is available from one supplier. There are… The post New patent for Sun Pharma drug DRIZALMA SPRINKLE appeared ... The post New patent for Sun Pharma drug DRIZALMA SPRINKLE appeared first on Biotechblog.

Annual Drug Patent Expirations for RYBELSUS Rybelsus is a drug marketed by Novo and is included in one NDA. It is available from one supplier. There are six patents protecting… The post New patent for NOVO drug RYBELSUS appeared first on DrugPatentWatc... The post New patent for NOVO drug RYBELSUS appeared first on Biotechblog.

This chart shows the pharmaceutical companies with the most supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in Luxembourg. SPCs are used in European Union and select others to encourage pharmaceutical innovation by compensating… The post Which pharmaceuti... The post Which pharmaceutical companies have the most SPCs in Luxembourg? appeared first on Biotechblog.

During the pandemic, the biotech industry has continued to complete deals, even without face-to-face interactions. Startups should leverage communication to sustain their investor relations and build strong momentum for late-stage funding rounds in the coming years. Speaking last July, the UK’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, said the Covid-19 pandemic had brought an uptake of new health innovations “like never before”, paving the way for innovative startups to make their mark on the industry. The good news is, as this spotlight was thrust upon them, potential investors were watching.  Despite a temporary drop in seed and Series A financings at the start of the pandemic, 2020 saw a record-breaking level of investment poured into UK biotech companies, with Bit Bio and Purespring Therapeutics leading Series A venture deals, both raising over €45M (£40M).  Upon completion of a funding round, one of the biggest challenges I see young entrepreneurs and companies face is how to communicate effectively with their new investor. The post How Good Investor Communications Determine Success in a Covid World appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

This chart shows the pharmaceutical companies with the most supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in Romania. SPCs are used in European Union and select others to encourage pharmaceutical innovation by compensating… The post Which pharmaceutical... The post Which pharmaceutical companies have the most SPCs in Romania? appeared first on Biotechblog.

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed investment and research into vaccines and public health, but will such interest continue in the long term? Glenn Rockman, founder and Managing Partner of Adjuvant Capital, a VC firm investing in the infectious disease area, believes it will.  Rockman did not plan to get into life science investment. With a background in public policy and an interest in economics and finance, he decided to go into banking after leaving university. “I went to work at a big investment bank, JP Morgan, but I didn’t do traditional banking. My clients were limited to what we call ‘mission-driven organizations’ that have a social purpose on top of their institutional purpose.”  Many organizations fall within this realm, including universities, art museums, and research institutes. But few are as large or as well known as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which became one of Rockman’s clients. “One of their biggest priorities was finding a way to convince traditional life science investors that there was an overlooked profit and social impact opportunity in neglected public health challenges, The post Changing Attitudes on Vaccine and Public Health Investment appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Last month’s EU approval of Vazkepa — a treatment derived from fish oil and branded as Vascepa in the US — has added much-needed ammunition to the arsenal of doctors battling cardiovascular disease. Yet other similar treatments are returning lukewarm results and the possibility of approvals being withdrawn hangs in the air. Icosapent ethyl, a derivative of fish oil formulated by US-Irish biotech Amarin, recently became the first approved treatment in the EU to reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks in patients with elevated triglycerides—a type of fat—who have previously been treated with statins.  The approval addresses a pressing medical need. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. In Europe, over 60 million people suffer from CVD, and the cost to the economy is estimated at around €210B per year. Icosapent ethyl is a purified form of EPA, one of two major omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, the other one called DHA. The drug, The post Vazkepa Gets EMA Nod for Cardiovascular Disease, But Hurdles Remain appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

The US medtech firm Hologic has bought the Finnish-French biotech Mobidiag for around €668M in the latest of a series of mergers, acquisitions, and stock market launches taking over the diagnostics market. Hologic’s move is the latest in a flurry of activity from the women’s health specialist, which has snapped up Diagenode in Belgium, Biotheranostics in the US, and Somatex in Germany this year alone.  This is just one example of the many financial transactions happening in the diagnostics market over the past few months, with major deals, increasing stock prices, and unprecedented revenues. Cancer diagnostics such as liquid biopsies have seen a particular surge in interest, with the US sequencing giant Illumina’s €6.6B acquisition of the California-based liquid biopsy firm Grail last year and the completion of a €1.8B acquisition of US-based firm Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. by Exact Sciences Corp.  “We expect this trend to continue if not to intensify,” said Christian Hense, COO of the Spanish in-vitro diagnostics company Universal Diagnostics, The post Pandemic Boosts Diagnostics Field with High Revenues and Acquisitions appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Innovative and personalized treatments are transforming the face of modern medicine. As patient populations become more targeted, clinical trial organizers are using strict criteria to precisely capture therapeutic effects in these populations. Successful study planning requires operational expertise, market understanding, contingency planning, and the right partners. The global pandemic in 2020 brought many industrial sectors to a standstill. Although a large number of clinical trials around the world were affected by the global health emergency, biotech companies made dedicated efforts to ensure clinical trials continued as seamlessly as possible. In fact – Covid-19 aside – the number of clinical trials has steadily increased from 15,000 new studies commissioned in 2015 to 22,000 in 2020. With these rising numbers, traditional research sites, such as those in the US, face increasing competition in the clinical trial space: Emerging economies are becoming hotbeds of innovation, pushing the biotech sector to explore new locations for conducting clinical studies. Unique opportunities: clinical trials in Asia and Europe  Katarzyna Moscicka, Head of Feasibility, The post How to Ensure Clinical Trial Success in Asia and Europe appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Mismanagement of R&D projects in biotech and pharma is more common than one might think and can result in high development costs and eventual clinical failure. Can we do something about it? Biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses are synonymous with both a high risk and an even bigger investment. Bringing new drugs to the market can take around 10 years of R&D and a lot of cash, averaging $1.3B per drug⁠.  While we often hear about clinical trial failures, a less-discussed aspect is failure in the initial steps in the drug discovery and R&D process management. In fact, the success of the drug discovery process is notoriously low with an overall failure rate of over 96%. Anything and everything from selecting a target to outsourcing basic research can be a major contributing factor to the later success or failure of a drug candidate in the pipeline. Moreover, the common setup where a large number of different departments have to cohesively interact throughout this drug discovery journey, The post The Hidden Costs of Mismanaged R&D Projects in Biotech and Pharma  appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

The close of the UK firm Achilles Therapeutics’ €146.9M ($175.5M) initial public offering last month may have been a long-delayed starter pistol for investments into neoantigen-based therapies, a family of personalized cancer immunotherapies that target proteins unique to an individual’s tumor. Neoantigen-focused companies have closed smaller initial public offerings (IPOs) in the past. Two major examples in 2018 were an €80M ($95.6M) net raise for the US firm Gritstone Oncology and a €75.2M ($89.9M) IPO for its compatriot Neon Therapeutics. But the Achilles close, following a series of fundraising announcements over the past six months for younger neoantigen companies, could be a sign that investors are warming up as never before. Investors had soured on the neoantigen space following some late-stage clinical failures in therapies targeting tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), says Cedric Bogaert, co-founder and CEO of myNEO, a bioinformatics company in Belgium that identifies neoantigens. TAAs are commonly present in multiple types of tumors, making them attractive therapeutic targets for drug developers. But some can also be found in healthy tissue, The post Achilles Therapeutics’ IPO Caps Investment Wave for Neoantigens appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

Last year, the FDA rejected DBV Technologies’ peanut allergy treatment and approved that of its rival Aimmune. After recent talks with the FDA and EMA, DBV has laid out a comeback plan that could carve it a niche in the peanut allergy treatment market. The French biotech firm DBV is coming back from a snub by the FDA of its peanut allergy skin patch, Viaskin Peanut, in August 2020. The rejection came with a demand for more testing due to concerns about patch adherence to the skin. The stall in approval was followed by DBV laying off two-thirds of its staff. It also allowed Aimmune, DBV’s biggest rival, to go unopposed in the peanut allergy treatment market with its oral treatment Palforzia, which was approved by the FDA and EMA last year. In January this year, DBV announced plans to get Viaskin approved in the US based on feedback from the FDA. First, the firm is modifying its skin patch to address the FDA’s adherence concerns, and later this year, The post DBV Battles Aimmune for Share of Peanut Allergy Treatment Market appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

There is a growing awareness of the waste and pollution caused by the building industry. New biomaterials are being created using waste products and microbes to solve these ecological problems.  “Using biological materials in buildings isn’t a new concept – we’ve built wooden structures for thousands of years,” said Gavin McIntyre, co-founder and Director of Business Development at Ecovative Design, a US-based biotech making materials with mycelium — part of the root system of mushrooms. Increasing knowledge about microbiology and synthetic biology techniques is now allowing innovative biomaterials to enter the market, such as self-healing concrete, mycelium insulation, chipboard made of food waste, and artificial mother of pearl.   “What’s unique about the new generation of biomaterials is that they’re tunable. We can now build unique properties into materials at the molecular level,” said McIntyre. Although there has been interest in developing new biomaterials for building for some time, the building industry is conservative and heavily price-driven, The post Biomaterials Are Making the Building Industry More Sustainable appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

CRISPR technology offers the promise to cure any human genetic disease with gene editing; which one will be the first? CRISPR-Cas9 was first used as a gene-editing tool in 2012. In just a few years, the technology has exploded in popularity thanks to its promise of making gene editing much faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before. CRISPR gene editing has already changed the way scientists do research. But the technology could also hold great power used as a treatment for human diseases. In theory, CRISPR technology could let us edit any genetic mutation at will, curing any disease with a genetic origin. In practice, we are just at the beginning of the development of CRISPR as a therapy and there are still many unknowns. These are eight of the multiple diseases that scientists are already tackling with the help of CRISPR-Cas9, even if the research is still in early stages of development. One of them may eventually become the first condition to ever be treated with this revolutionary technology. The post Eight Diseases CRISPR Technology Could Cure appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

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Here are your events for the week Sunday, September 3 Oakland, CA, USA – Open Insulin Lab Day  Work on...

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Here are your DIYbio events for the week Sunday, August 20 Cincinnati, OH, USA – Science Book Club – The...

Here are your DIYbio events for the remainder of the week Monday, August 14 Brooklyn, NY, USA – Biotextiles: Grow...

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Here are your DIYbio events for the week. On Sunday, Brooklyn begins its Biotechnology Crash Course, Cambridge has a series...