Ligand News and Research

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CSHL solves the structure of the zinc-bound ATD domain of the NMDA receptor NR2B subunit

A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) reports on Thursday their success in solving the molecular structure of a key portion of a cellular receptor implicated in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other serious illnesses.

13 Nov 2009

arGentis Pharmaceuticals to commence human clinical evaluation of ARG301 oral altered peptide ligand

arGentis Pharmaceuticals, LLC today announced that it will collaborate with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center of Memphis (VAMC) to initiate the first human clinical evaluation of an oral altered peptide ligand (APL), ARG301, in a Phase I study of Rheumatoid Arthritis patients.

12 Nov 2009

Sanofi-aventis, Regeneron sign agreement to expand development collaboration

Sanofi-aventis and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: REGN) announced today that they have entered into agreements to expand and extend their existing global collaboration to discover, develop, and commercialize fully-human therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

11 Nov 2009

Neurogen announces financial results for the third quarter of 2009

Neurogen Corporation, a drug development company historically focused on drugs for psychiatric and neurological disorders, today announced financial and operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

6 Nov 2009

Pfizer extends JAK3 research collaboration with Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced today that its research collaboration with Pfizer for JAK3 has been extended by one year. The Research and License Agreement entered into in December 2006 with Wyeth provided for an initial three year research term. Under this extension, Ligand will receive $3.1 million in research payments to continue conducting drug discovery and lead candidate optimization.

6 Nov 2009

NIH awards Trevena $7.65M Grand Opportunity grant

Trevena Inc., a leader in the discovery of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligands announced today that it was awarded a $7.65 million Grand Opportunity (GO) Grant by the office of the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This grant will further fund Trevena’s work to identify and characterize functionally selective biased ligands for a wide range of GPCRs.

3 Nov 2009

Ligand Pharmaceuticals amends license agreement with Exelixis

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has amended its license agreement with Exelixis, Inc. as a result of which Ligand is now entitled to receive royalties on net sales of future products from a mineralocorticoid receptor program and a one-time $75,000 payment for providing access to certain patent rights.

2 Nov 2009

CellAura to provide pharmacologically validated reagents for Cisbio Bioassays' cellular studies

CellAura, the leading producer of fluorescence reagents for drug discovery and life sciences research, today announced a development partnership with Cisbio Bioassays. Under the terms of the agreement, CellAura will provide pharmacologically validated reagents to Cisbio Bioassays that will be applied to Cisbio Bioassays’ Tag-lite™ range of non-radioactive assays for cellular studies.

23 Oct 2009

KemPharm commences KP106 Phase 1 clinical trial for ADHD

KemPharm, Inc. today announced that it has commenced a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers of its novel prodrug compound, KP106, which is in development for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). KP106, a new chemical entity (NCE) composed of d-amphetamine and a ligand, is the lead investigational candidate from KemPharm’s proprietary ligand activated therapy (LAT) platform, which creates improved versions of FDA-approved drugs. KemPharm began the KP106 program in 2007 and has initiated the Phase 1 clinical trial of this candidate in less than 24 months.

22 Oct 2009

HBO treatments may improve neurological outcome after traumatic brain injury

Hard to Treat Diseases, Inc. (HTDS:PK), http://www.htdsmedical.com announced that researchers in its Slavica BioChem division have reported new positive results of experiments in which the potential beneficial effects of Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) after traumatic brain injury have been explored.

22 Oct 2009

TargetEx to be the coordinator for CancerGrid consortium

TargetEx llc, Budapest announced today that the Research Directorate General of the Commission of the European Communities approved the transfer of the coordinator responsibilities of the European Cancer Research Consortium (CancerGrid) to TargetEx.

9 Oct 2009

Membrane-bound Fas ligand is essential for cell death: Researchers

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have put an end to a 10-year debate over which form of a molecular messenger called Fas ligand is responsible for killing cells during programmed cell death (also called apoptosis).

1 Oct 2009

Ligand and GSK amend agreement to pursue independent research programs

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced that pursuant to an amendment to a March 2006 research agreement with GlaxoSmithKline, GSK has agreed to accelerate the timing of a $500,000 payment to Ligand that would otherwise have been required upon the identification of a new lead chemical series for advancement in its alliance with GSK.

29 Sep 2009

CEL-SCI Corporation engages a CRO for clinical trial of its investigational LEAPS-H1N1 treatment

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE AMEX: CVM), a developer of vaccines and therapeutics for the treatment of infectious diseases and a late-stage oncology company, announced today that it has hired a full-service Clinical Research Organization (CRO) with an office in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area to support its conduct of the upcoming clinical trial of its investigational LEAPS-H1N1 treatment.

24 Sep 2009

KemPharm announces nomination of its second pipeline candidate

KemPharm, Inc. today announced the nomination of its second pipeline candidate, KP201, based on its proprietary ligand activated therapy (LAT) platform. KP201 is a new chemical entity (NCE) for the treatment of pain with the possibility of reduced abuse potential. KP201 joins lead candidate KP106, which is a novel prodrug candidate in development for ADHD.

16 Sep 2009

CEL-SCI to commence its LEAPS-H1N1 clinical trial following FDA approval

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE Amex: CVM), a developer of vaccines and therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and a late-stage oncology company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has indicated that the Company can proceed with its first clinical trial to evaluate the effect of its investigational LEAPS-H1N1 treatment on the white blood cells of hospitalized H1N1 patients.

16 Sep 2009

Small molecule blocks aberrant pathway associated with myotonic dystrophy

Researchers at the University of Illinois have designed a small molecule that blocks an aberrant pathway associated with myotonic dystrophy type 1, the most common form of muscular dystrophy.

8 Sep 2009

Iterative in situ click chemistry creates antibody-like protein-capture agents

Chemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and The Scripps Research Institute (SRI) have developed an innovative technique to create cheap but highly stable chemicals that have the potential to take the place of the antibodies used in many standard medical diagnostic tests. James R. Heath, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center at Caltech, one of eight Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, and K. Barry Sharpless, Ph.D., SRI, and their colleagues describe the new technique in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

7 Sep 2009

Phase I clinical trial data of GDC-0449 published in the New England Journal Of Medicine

Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug development company focused on developing proprietary targeted medicines for cancer treatment, today announced that two publications describing clinical data generated with GDC-0449 were published in the current edition of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

3 Sep 2009

Cytrx’s study offers a better perception of arimoclomol's mechanism of action in induced animal stroke

CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR), a biopharmaceutical research and development company engaged in the development of high-value human therapeutics, today announced that study results demonstrated that arimoclomol exhibited both statistically significant neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects in brain cells of animals induced with stroke, offering important insights into this drug candidate’s mechanism of action.

25 Aug 2009