A community hospital survey sponsored by the American Hospital Assn. and the Federation of American Hospitals shows that inpatient drug prices rose 40% between 2013 and 2015. Almost all of the surveyed hospitals reported that the increases had a moderate to severe effect on their ability to manage costs. “These price increases are extremely troublesome throughout the healthcare system,” according […]
CERN researcher’s fertility app is as good as oral contraceptives, condoms
Natural Cycles, the fertility app developed by former CERN particle physicist Elina Berglund, is reportedly as effective at preventing pregnancy as oral contraceptives or condoms, boasting a 99.5% efficacy rate. Berglund began working on the app while she was still at the particle physics laboratory in Geneva, she told Wired. “I wanted to give my […]
Consort Medical’s Bespak inks Syrina auto-injector development deal
Consort Medical (LON:CSRT) subsidiary Bespak said today that it inked a development agreement with an undisclosed biopharmaceutical company for its Syrina auto-injector. The deal makes Bespak responsible for early-stage development of the auto-injector. If the undisclosed partner agrees to commercialize the developed product, both parties will enter into a full commercial supply agreement, the company said. Rather […]
Codiak BioSciences lures Alnylam vet Sorensen to lead clinical program
Codiak BioSciences said today that it has named former Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:ALNY) executive Dr. Benny Sorensen as vice president and head of clinical development. Sorensen was Alnylam’s senior director of clinical research, leading the preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial strategies for hematology products. He also worked for Baxter (NYSE:BAX), advancing hematology therapies through Phase III pivotal development. Woburn, Mass.-based […]
Ocular Therapeutix inks $315 deal with Regeneron
Ocular Therapeutix (NSDQ:OCUL) said today that it landed a licensing deal with Regeneron (NSDQ:REGN) to develop a sustained-release version of Regeneron’s aflibercept (Eylea), a therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration. The deal will cost Regeneron $10 million up front, and in total could cost the Tarrytown, N.Y.-based biotech $315 million if regulatory and commercialization milestones are met. The terms […]
Real-time MRI in stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s
Researchers have observed that using intraoperative real-time MRI to guide induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons into the brains of non-human primates modeled with Parkinson’s disease yields better visualization and increased cell survival. The study, which will be published in the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair issue of Cell Transplantation, was conducted at the Wisconsin National Primate Research […]
Tunable hydrogel helps predict tissue response to chemotherapy
Researchers from the Wyss Institute developed a hydrogel microenvironment to evaluate how physical properties like stiffness of the extracellular matrix impacts the efficacy of chemotherapy. “To have success with chemotherapy and other drug therapies, we will likely need to screen their effectiveness against cells living in various environments, and not just assume that cells will always […]
Bioprinted 3D renal architecture recapitulates kidney function
Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have bioprinted a functional 3D renal architecture with living human epithelial cells. Previously, the team bioprinted tissue constructs made of living cells alongside a vascular network in an extracellular matrix. These constructs are functional in vitro for more than a month. “The current work […]
SEC launches probe, investors file suit against Mylan over EpiPen pricing
Despite a $465 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Dept., Mylan (NSDQ:MYL) is still under fire for misclassifying its EpiPen auto-injector with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Last week, the Securities & Exchange Commission’s enforcement division launched an investigation into the Canonsburg, Pa.-based company’s history with CMS; yesterday investors filed a purported class […]
Novocure enrolls 1st patient in Phase III brain metastases trial
Novocure (NSDQ:NVCR) said that the 1st patient has been enrolled in a Phase III pivotal trial of its tumor-treating field technology in combination with radiosurgery to treat brain metastases from non-small-cell lung cancer. The St. Helier, N.J.-based company’s tumor treating fields (TTFields) are low-intensity, intermediate-frequency, alternating electric fields designed to disrupt cell division within cancer cells. Novocure’s commercial product, Optune, […]