Backed by $16 million from investors that include Pfizer Inc.'s venture arm, a new orphan drug accelerator called Cydan LLC aims to spin out as many as five new companies in the first four years. Read More
WASHINGTON – At the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting this week, scientists showed off the fruits of their labor. But as always, given cancer research's dismal translational success rate, there were also discussions of how to improve that labor in the first place. Read More
The $3.77 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2014 that the White House unveiled Wednesday offers drugmakers a mixed bag of good news and bad news in terms of tax reforms and health care spending. Read More
Lipid Therapeutics GmbH aims to extend its pivotal program for its ulcerative colitis treatment LT-02 into the U.S., following an investigational new drug grant from the FDA that will enable it and its partner, Dr. Falk Pharma GmbH, to conduct a joint Phase III program on either side of the Atlantic. The plan depends on the company finding a U.S. partner, however. Read More
• Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Blue Bell, Pa., said it will receive a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to advance the development of its next-generation DNA vaccine delivery device capable of simultaneously administering multiple synthetic vaccines via skin surface electroporation. Read More
• Photocure ASA, of Oslo, Norway, reported final results from its Phase IIb study of Cevira in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related disease of the cervix, showing that the drug-delivery device demonstrated significant and sustained efficacy in the eradication of oncogenic HPV infections and precancerous lesions in CIN2 patients. Read More
• PeptiDream Inc., of Tokyo, and Ipsen SA, of Paris, entered a research collaboration and license option agreement to discover, evaluate, potentially develop and launch therapeutic peptides to treat serious medical conditions in areas of therapeutic focus for Ipsen. Read More