// Biotech and Pharma Therapeutics
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Liver Drug Data Position It for MASH Clash With Eli Lilly
February 26, 2024 / Boehringer Ingelheim / Liver / New Drug / MASH / Eli Lilly
Preliminary Phase 2 results show 83% of those treated with Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma drug survodutide met the main goal of improvement in the fatty liver disease MASH. Boehringer contends this drug has best-in-class potential in a competitive field that includes an Eli Lilly drug that recently posted positive Phase 2 results.
AstraZeneca Returns to FibroGen the Rights to Roxadustat in US, Other Territories
February 28, 2024 / AstraZeneva / FibroGen / Partnership
AstraZeneca on Monday shut down the bulk of its roxadustat partnership with FibroGen, returning the rights to develop and commercialize the investigational HIF-PH inhibitor in the U.S. and other AstraZeneca territories to the biotech.
Philips releases radiation-free device guidance tool LumiGuide
February 22, 2024 / Philips / LumiGuide / Medtech / X-rays
Philips announced the launch of a new radiation-free imaging technology dubbed LumiGuide, which uses light reflections to provide 3D images of devices within the body. LumiGuide is a device guidance tool powered by fiber optic technology that allows surgeons to visualize a device within the body without being exposed to radiation. The tool gives surgeons access to real-time 3D device-guidance in color. It can be deployed within catheters already in use.
Viking data suggest obesity drug could rival Zepbound, Wegovy
February 27, 2024 / Viking / Eli Lilly / Novo Nordisk / Phase 2 / Weight Loss
Viking’s drug, an injectable therapy called VK2735, activates two insulin-stimulating hormones known as GLP-1 and GIP. The drug’s mechanism is similar to Lilly’s tirzepatide, which is approved for obesity and diabetes under different brand names. Tirzepatide is a big reason why the pharma giant has become one of the world’s most valuable companies, with a market capitalization above $700 billion.
J&J to shut down massive Bay Area R&D facility less than 18
February 25, 2024 / Johnson & Johnson / R&D / San Francisco / Cell & Gene Therapy
Johnson & Johnson is closing a nearly 200,000 square-foot R&D outpost in Brisbane, California, less than 18 months after it opened, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision.
// 4th Industrial Revolution
Generative AI in Your Desk Drawer: Back Office Applications in Health Care
February 26, 2024 / AI / Healthcare
The Healthcare IT Today site has been promoting the use of powerful new capabilities in generative AI for clinical applications, notably the automatic generation of doctors’ notes after a patient visit. But there may be even more valuable uses of generative AI in administrative tasks such as billing, resource management, and contract writing.
Startup uses AI to develop vaccines for future pandemics
February 26, 2024 / Startup / AI / Vaccines / UK
Baseimmune, a British startup that uses AI to develop vaccines for future pathogen mutations, raised £9 million in venture capital funding.
As Nvidia’s worth hits the stratosphere, AI innovators eyeball new orbits
February 23, 2024 / Nvidia / AI / Big Tech
A lot of monster tech companies are doing a lot of AI development. Start the list with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. What they and a host of others have in common is a voracious appetite for GPU chips capable of processing lofty AI business visions into blockbuster AI products.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical digested 800 million compounds to facilitate AI drug discovery
February 26, 2024 / AI / Drug Discovery
Publicly listed Daewoong Pharmaceutical has recently unveiled its AI-driven drug development system, powered by a database of hundreds of millions of pre-processed compounds.
Researchers develop terahertz biosensor to detect skin cancer for early diagnosis
February 26, 2024 / Skin Cancer / Cancer Detection
Affecting one in four men and one in five women at least once in their lifetime in the UK, skin cancer is an abnormal growth of skin cells that involves three major types: basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.
// Business & Markets
AbbVie Puts Potential $713M on the Line for OSE’s Inflammation Antibody
February 28, 2024 / AbbVie / Partnership
AbbVie on Wednesday entered into a strategic partnership with OSE Immunotherapeutics to advance the French biotech’s early-stage monoclonal antibody OSE-230 as a treatment for chronic and severe inflammation.
After Roche breakup, Blueprint Medicines finds Gavreto a new home at Rigel
February 22, 2024 / Blueprint Medicines / Deals / Roche
As Roche officially abandoned cancer drug Gavreto, its former partner Blueprint Medicines has found the RET inhibitor a new owner in the U.S.
PhaSER Biomedical receives $2.3m drug discovery grant from the Gates Foundation
February 26, 2024 / PhaSER / Drug Discovery / Gates Foundation
PhaSER Biomedical has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation worth $2.3m to accelerate drug discovery and development.
PhaSER’s technology, 8HUM, will become a collaborating institution within the Global Health Discovery Collaboratory Programme, funded by the Gates Foundation.
As part of the three-year programme, PhaSER will provide 8HUM transgenic mouse models, humanised for key pathways involved in the metabolism and disposition of drugs, to all grantees of the foundation.
Ginkgo adds gene editing tools in buyout of Feng Zhang-founded startup
February 28, 2024 / Ginkgo / Startup / Proof Diagnostics / Cell Engineering
Ginkgo Bioworks has acquired a biotechnology startup co-founded by gene editing pioneer Feng Zhang, part of the cell engineering company’s plan to build up technologies that can help other companies make genetic medicines.
Novo Inks Potential $1.46B Deal to Tap Neomorph’s Molecular Glue Platform
February 27, 2024 / Novo Nordisk / San Diego / Research & Development
Novo Nordisk has signed a collaboration and licensing deal with Neomorph to discover, develop and commercialize molecular glue degraders for cardiovascular and rare diseases, the San Diego-based biotech announced on Monday.
// Legal & Regulatory
AstraZeneca finally drops roxadustat US rights after FDA rejection, trial failure
February 27, 2024 / AstraZeneca / FibroGen / Evrenzo / China
More than two years after a high-profile FDA rejection, AstraZeneca has returned rights to the HIF-PH inhibitor in the U.S. and certain other countries but retained an interest in China and South Korea, where the drug is approved under the brand name Evrenzo.
Scilex settles lawsuit with Virpax Pharmaceuticals
February 26, 2024 / Scilex / Virpax Pharma / Lawsuit / Settlement
Scilex Holding Company, specializing in non-opioid pain management, and its subsidiary Scilex Pharmaceuticals Inc., along with Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc., have reached a preliminary settlement agreement with Virpax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The agreement, announced today, is set to resolve disputes stemming from a lawsuit filed against Anthony Mack, former President of Scilex Pharma and founder of Virpax.
US FDA to boost inspections of drug manufacturing units in India
February 27, 2024 / FDA / India / Drug Manufacturing
The U.S. drug regulator is set to increase the number of inspections at Indian drug manufacturing units in 2024 amid growing concerns over the quality of drugs, a top executive for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told Reuters.
The FDA conducted more than 200 inspections in 2023 in India, picking up after a lull in unannounced inspections during the pandemic.
Fresh from the biotech pipeline: record-breaking FDA approvals
February 26, 2024 / FDA / Approvals / New Drug
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a record-breaking 71 new medicines in 2023. There were one or two controversial decisions and a slight drop in first-in-class approvals. But overall, the numbers may help assuage concerns of a more restrictive regulator following 2022’s sub-40 approval tally and signal a back-to-business FDA following the official end of the US COVID-19 public health emergency in May.
Iowa’s first telepharmacy sued by Texas supplier for nearly $2.2 million
February 26, 2024 / Iowa / Texas / Lawsuit
An Iowa pharmaceutical company with ties to Iowa businessman and former Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter is being sued for nonpayment for $2.1 million worth of pharmaceuticals.
// Research & Development
Boehringer links dual glucagon/GLP-1 agonist to improvements in MASH scarring
February 26, 2024 / Boehringer Ingelheim / NASH / GLP-1 / Fatty Liver Disease
Boehringer Ingelheim has made progress with its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) treatment, linking the Zealand Pharma-partnered candidate to improvements in disease activity and liver scarring in a phase 2 trial.
Turning to Patients to Help Drive Rare Disease Drug Development
February 26, 2024 / Drug Development / Patient Care
Across industry and academia, many people working to discover new treatments have expertise won through years of formal education and benchwork. But there’s also a faster, harsher path to a very particular scientific expertise: a rare disease diagnosis for oneself or a loved one.
GSK, pushing back UTI filing by a year, shows antibiotic’s gonorrhea potential in phase 3
February 26, 2024 / GSK / Antibiotics / Gonorrhea / Phase 3
In the late-stage EAGLE-1 trial of around 600 patients, two 3,000-mg daily doses of oral gepotidacin for five days demonstrated noninferiority to the most common treatment for gonorrhea—an injection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone and oral dose of the antibiotic azithromycin—when assessed by microbiological response between three and seven days later. This hit the study’s primary endpoint.
ICR study reveals new targeted immunotherapy to prevent spread of breast cancer
February 28, 2024 / ICR / Breast Cancer / Immunotherapy
Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have revealed a new type of targeted immunotherapy to help prevent the growth and spread of tumours in breast cancers.
Published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, the new research was funded by Breast Cancer Now.
Responsible for around 47,000 new cases in England every year, breast cancer is a disease that occurs when cells in the breast grow out of control.
WA Leads Way To Protect Brain After Stroke
February 28, 2024 / Stroke / New Drug / Australia
A new groundbreaking drug to reduce brain tissue damage following a stroke is being trialled in hospitals across Australia by Perth-based biotech company Argenica Therapeutics.
Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson lauded the revolutionary drug treatment, which was discovered in Perth, as a game changer for stroke patients.
// Politics
Patients see savings from Biden’s drug price push, pharma lines up lawyers
Februry 26, 2024 / Patients / Biden / Voters
Last year alone, David Mitchell paid $16,525 for 12 little bottles of Pomalyst, one of the pricey medications that treat his multiple myeloma, a blood cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010.
The drugs have kept his cancer at bay. But their rapidly increasing costs so infuriated Mitchell that he was inspired to create an advocacy movement.
The US bioeconomy is worth $950 billion, and growing, thanks to these federal policies
Februry 28, 2024 / Federal Policies / Bioeconomy / White House
Doug Friedman, CEO of BioMADE, the Bioindustrial Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and strategic adviser for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, told GreenBiz that U.S. biotechnology “is pushing on 40 years” as an industry.
Lawmakers ask Biden to reconsider use of forced drug licensing
February 27, 2024 / Lawmakers / Biden / Drug Licensing
In the USA, there is growing resistance to a bid from the White House to exercise so-called march-in rights, a process whereby the federal government requires patent holders to agree to a licence.
Big Tech clashes with Texas, Florida at Supreme Court
February 26, 2024 / Big Tech / Texas / Florida / Supreme Court
The laws, instated by Texas and Florida, differ in their details, though both seek to prevent “unfair” censorship by Big Tech, specifically against conservative perspectives. The Florida law — SB 7072 — additionally prohibits Big Tech from de-platforming Floridian political candidates.
SC pulls up Centre over rising disparity in pvt-govt medical expenses, says “act or we will implement CGHS rates”
February 28, 2024 / Supreme Court of India / Healthcare
The Supreme Court of India has come down heavily on the Central government over the rising disparity in medical expenses between government and private facilities.