The U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Dept. of Defense (DoD) announced a joint effort to increase manufacturing for vials earmarked for COVID-19-related drugs and vaccines. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), as part of HHS, collaborated with DoD to provide funding for U.S.-based companies Corning Inc. and SiO2 Materials […]
Moderna reports positive early data out of COVID-19 vaccine trial
Moderna today touted positive interim clinical data from trials for its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The Phase I study, led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recorded positive early results from the first eight people tested, each of whom received two […]
Soligenix soars on COVID-19 vaccine licensing agreement with Boston Scientific
Soligenix (NSDQ:SNGX) skyrocketed up 89% in premarket trading this morning after announcing today that it entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) for its CoVaccine HT novel vaccine adjuvant for COVID-19. Shares of SNGX were up 12.5% at $1.58 per share in mid-morning trading today as well. Boston Scientific’s BTG Specialty Pharmaceuticals […]
OncoSec, Inovio testing COVID-19 vaccines
OncoSec Medical (NSDQ:ONCS) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:INO) announced that they are testing potential COVID-19 vaccines after the latter received investigational new drug clearance from the FDA. Inovio received an IND nod, while OncoSec’s is pending, but both companies are pursuing a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial for their vaccines, according to separate news releases. OncoSec is using […]
‘Hubble Space Telescope’ for genomics could yield new drugs, materials
Researchers in Spain have developed a new genomics tool that can classify how species are related to each other at far larger scales than previously possible and may yield new drugs, materials and foods — and pinpoint strategies for saving species at risk of extinction. Heralded as a “Hubble Space Telescope” of genomics, the technology […]
KemPharm inks drug discovery deal with AI-driven biopharma
KemPharm (NSDQ:KMPH) said today that it inked a collaboration with twoXar to develop prodrug-based therapies for an array of therapeutic indications. According to the deal, twoXar’s artificial intelligence-based drug discovery technology will be used alongside KemPharm’s Ligand Activated Therapy platform to identify and develop new prodrug therapies. In conjunction with its deal with twoXar, KemPharm also inked a research and […]
How suppliers are taking drug-delivery tech to the next level
Medical device industry suppliers and outsourcers are helping to enable the latest drug-delivery tech. Drug-eluting technologies are moving beyond stents, thanks in part to the development of polymeric hydrogels engineered to respond to a range of different physical and chemical stimuli. Medtech innovators have figured out how to use hydrogels as components of micro-shells or […]
Sage Therapeutics’ chief scientist on discovering drugs and taking risks
When Al Robichaud got his start as a medicinal chemist in 1991, he knew that discovering and developing drugs meant shouldering some level of risk. But around 2011, it became clear that the process for developing brain drugs was too costly and risky for major pharmaceutical companies to justify pursuing, as companies including Novartis (NYSE:NVS), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), […]
Gilead inks $90m deal with Verily to create “molecular map” of inflammatory disease
Gilead Sciences (NSDQ:GILD) is reportedly slated to pay Alphabet’s Verily Life Sciences $90 million over three years to analyze cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and lupus-related diseases. By probing immune cells from patients involved in Gilead’s clinical trials, the companies hope to glean a better understanding of the immunological signatures of RA, […]
Rebiotix develops tool to measure rehabilitation of microbiome
Rebiotix today unveiled its Microbiome Health Index – a tool it created to establish a standard metric that can be used to quantify how effective a microbiome-based therapy is at rehabilitating the human microbiome. The index, which was developed in partnership with data analytics firm BioRankings, combines four bacterial classes into a unidimensional expression of […]
