Therapeutics News and Research

RSS

Dicerna secures $4 million in second closing of Series B equity financing

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a second generation RNA interference (RNAi) company developing novel therapeutics utilizing its proprietary Dicer Substrate Technology and Dicer Substrate siRNA (DsiRNA) molecules, today announced a second closing of its Series B equity financing, securing an additional $4 million and bringing the total capital raised in this round to $29 million.

22 Oct 2010

Baxter third quarter net income increases 12% to $595 million

Baxter International Inc. today announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2010, and provided its fourth quarter and updated full-year 2010 financial outlook.

From Baxter International Inc. 21 Oct 2010

Cerenis raises €10 million in second close of Series C financing

Cerenis Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research and development of novel therapies based on HDL to treat cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases, announced today it has raised a further €10 million in a second close of its Series C financing. This takes the total funds raised in the Series C to €50 million and the total equity investment raised to date by the Company to €117 million.

21 Oct 2010

Scientists suggest enzyme that modifies 4-quinolones can reduce microbial infection

So disease-causing bacteria in the body finally have multiplied to the point where their numbers are large enough to cause illness. What's next? They get out their "smart phones" and whisper "Let's roll!" That's how an article in ACS' monthly Chemical Reviews describes the substances "smart phones of the microbial world" that bacteria use to transmit chemical signals that launch infections and monitor their environment.

21 Oct 2010

Scientists find potential Achilles Heel in JC polyomavirus

The JC polyomavirus doesn't strike very often, but it's a mean bug that preys on people with weakened immune systems, including people with AIDS, and almost always kills them. Now an international team of scientists at Brown University, the University of T-bingen in Germany, and Imperial College in London has found a potential Achilles Heel and painted a target on it: The virus must bind to a very specific sugar molecule dangling from the side of the brain cells it attacks.

21 Oct 2010

Quark initiates dosing NAION patients in QPI-1007 Phase I study for ocular neuroprotection

Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi-based therapeutics, today announced it has dosed the first patient with recent onset of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) in its ongoing Phase I study of QPI-1007, the Company's proprietary synthetic siRNA drug candidate for ocular neuroprotection.

21 Oct 2010

Envoy expands drug discovery collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute

Envoy Therapeutics, Inc., a recently-formed drug discovery company, today announced that it has expanded its research collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute aimed at identifying new drugs for neurological and psychiatric diseases.

20 Oct 2010

Abbott third quarter worldwide sales increase 11.8% to $8.7 billion

Abbott today announced financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2010.

20 Oct 2010

RWV bioreactor creates 3-D cell culture models

The cells and tissues in our bodies grow, develop and interact in a highly complex, three-dimensional world. Likewise, the various microbial pathogens that invade our bodies and cause infectious disease interact with this complex 3-D tissue milieu. In the current issue of the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology, researcher Cheryl Nickerson and her team at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University highlight an innovative approach for studying cells in 3-D.

20 Oct 2010

PBS-Bio announces three new contracts to develop cancer therapy

In an industry that faces increasing challenges in delivering new drugs to patients, Predictive Biomarker Sciences (PBS-Bio) today announced three new contracts aimed at bringing new medicines to the marketplace.

20 Oct 2010

More education and attention needed on inflammatory breast cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), an aggressive and rare malignancy, is often initially misdiagnosed as an infection or rash. However, getting the correct diagnosis quickly is critical for patients because the disease spreads beyond the breast in a matter of just days or weeks.

20 Oct 2010

EPO grants new patent to Silence Therapeutics’ RNAi structural modification technology

Silence Therapeutics plc announces that the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted a new patent that provides broad protection on novel aspects of the RNAi structural modification technology known as the Zamore Design Rules.

20 Oct 2010

Turmeric component enhances chemotherapy's suppression of head and neck cancer

Curcumin, the major component in the spice turmeric, when combined with the drug Cisplatin enhances the chemotherapy's suppression of head and neck cancer cell growth, researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center have found.

20 Oct 2010

Mirna announces USPTO allows claims to therapeutic application of let-7 miRNA

Mirna Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the USPTO has allowed claims related to the therapeutic application of let-7 in the regulation of oncogenes. The claims derive from a patent application that was submitted by Yale University and exclusively licensed to Mirna related to the pioneering work of Dr. Frank Slack, Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology at Yale University in New Haven, CT.

20 Oct 2010

Cell Therapeutics enters agreement to sell $21.0 million of Series 7 Preferred Stock

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell, subject to customary closing conditions, $21.0 million of shares of its Series 7 Preferred Stock and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock in a registered offering to four institutional investors.

20 Oct 2010

Pearl announces $69 million Series C financing round

Pearl Therapeutics Inc., a privately held company developing clinically differentiated combination therapies for the treatment of highly prevalent chronic respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), today announced a $69 million Series C financing. The financing round was led by Vatera Healthcare Partners and included existing investors, Clarus Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners and 5AM Ventures.

20 Oct 2010

Ceregene commences enrollment in CERE-120 Phase 2b study for Parkinson's disease

Ceregene, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, announced today that enrollment has begun in a new double-blind sham surgery-controlled Phase 2b study evaluating CERE-120 in Parkinson's disease patients. CERE-120 is a gene therapy product that delivers the neurotrophic factor neurturin to degenerating or dying dopamine neurons. Data from the first Phase 2 clinical trial of CERE-120 are being published later this year in Lancet Neurology (to appear online October 21, 2010).

20 Oct 2010

BioMarin announces BMN-111 program for treatment of achondroplasia

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. today announced its program for BMN-111, a peptide therapeutic for the treatment of achondroplasia. BioMarin plans to file an IND in the fourth quarter of 2011 and to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial by the first quarter of 2012.

19 Oct 2010

Rexahn announces publication of 3-aryl-1-isoquinolinamines preclinical data

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing potential best in class oncology and CNS therapeutics, today announced the publication of new preclinical data on the development of 3-aryl-1-isoquinolinamines in the European Journal & Medicinal Chemistry.

19 Oct 2010

Acorda announces data of GGF2 preclinical studies for focal ischemic stroke

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc, today announced that data from preclinical studies show that Glial Growth Factor 2 (GGF2) promoted functional recovery following a permanent focal ischemic stroke.

19 Oct 2010