Novo Nordisk is touting the first Phase III success for its once-weekly GLP-1 therapy semaglutide. The Danish pharma company says that two doses of the drug–a key part of the pipeline–slashed HbA1c levels by 1.5% and 1.6%. …read more Source: Novo heralds promising PhIII diabetes data for once-weekly semaglutide
Biogen’s high-profile R&D chief, Doug Williams, has heard the siren song of a biotech startup. Near midday on Friday, the Big Biotech put out word that Williams will be leaving Biogen to helm a fledgling, and unnamed, company. All that is known now is that Williams is the first member of a new company that […]
…read more Source: Takeda chairman Hasegawa out as JPMA vice president
ResearchKit, the technology Apple promises will transform the world’s hundreds of millions of iPhones into handheld gatherers of clinical data, could become a viable tool in drug development, and two major drugmakers are working to integrated into clinical trials. …read more Source: GlaxoSmithKline and Purdue look to Apple’s ResearchKit for R&D
The rapid maturation of gene therapy technologies has galvanized a wide range of projects throughout industry and academia, and now a team of researchers from Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital believe they may have come up with a one-time treatment for a genetic cause of deafness. …read more Source: Gene therapy signals hope for inherited […]
San Francisco’s Global Blood Therapeutics, founded by Third Rock Ventures, is angling for a $115 million IPO to bankroll its work on an oral treatment for sickle cell disease. …read more Source: Third Rock’s GBT swings for a $115M IPO to push its pill for sickle cell
An FDA advisory panel offered some key though largely lukewarm support for Eli Lilly’s experimental lung cancer drug necitumumab. While there was no formal vote for or against approval, committee members weighed the positives and negatives of a drug that showed only a marginal survival advantage for patients–but a big enough plus for patients that […]
Billionaire entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong further complicated his sprawling biotech empire with another joint venture, teaming up with frequent collaborator Sorrento Therapeutics to launch a new company focused on oncology. …read more Source: Soon-Shiong spawns yet another spinout in a tangled web of cancer R&D
Charles River Laboratories has struck a deal to buy Celsis International for $212 million, nabbing its complementary bacterial detection systems for quality-control testing. …read more Source: Charles River bags new testing tech in $212M buyout
Two weeks after reporting that its lead drug failed a Phase II pain study, Aquinox Pharmaceuticals came back with more bad news this morning, noting its flop in a separate mid-stage study for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with a history of frequent exacerbations. …read more Source: Back-to-back PhII flops for lead drug scuttles Aquinox […]
