Unilife (NSDQ:UNIS) said today it finalized a $75 million collaborative deal with Amgen (NSDQ:AMGN) for injectable drug delivery systems, a deal the companies have been working out for the past month. The deal includes licensing, investment, development and supply agreements and is centered around Unilife’s prefilled customizable wearable injectors, according to an SEC filing from the York, […]
Research & Development
Diabetes: Medtronic furthers the quest for an artificial pancreas
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Intarcia Therapeutics were in the spotlight at the American Diabetes Assn.’s annual scientific sessions conference in Boston last week, revealing new medical device developments in the fight against diabetes. Medtronic took center stage, announcing new developments for its artificial pancreas program, touting positive data from a user study of its MiniMed 640g and revealing plans to collaborate […]
Delcath's Chemosat gives terminal cancer patients several more months of disease-free life
Delcath Systems Inc.’s (NSDQ:DCTH) Chemosat organ-targeting chemotherapy system extended the lives of terminal eye cancer patients by several months without disease progression, researchers said.
Melanoma of the eye often spreads to the liver, generally killing a patient in 1 to 2 months, according to a press release. Patients who received targeted treatment to saturate the liver lived an average of 8.1 months, compared to 1.6 months for patients receiving the best alternative care.
Cancer therapy device maker Delcath drops hard on inconclusive trial results
Delcath Systems Inc. (NSDQ:DCTH) saw share prices drop 11 percent on news that its flagship cancer therapy device presented inconclusive results in treatment of colorectal cancer.
Sixteen patients with very late stage colorectal cancer participated in Delcath’s phase II study of its Chemosat focused chemotherapy delivery system, which uses a series of tubes to aim chemotherapy drugs at a specific organ and then filter the blood to remove the toxins before returning it to the body.
Nonprofit takes risk out of device development for Medtronic
For companies like Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT), developing breakthrough technologies to treat untreatable diseases can be expensive and have little promise of financial returns.
The risk is high enough for — even companies as well-resourced as Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic — that alternative funding sources are welcomed and highly sought after.
Update: Isis Biopolymer raises another $3 million
Isis Biopolymer Inc., a company developing a new generation of non-invasive drug delivery patches, has raised $3 million through an equity sale to existing investors.
The Providence, R.I.-based firm has developed the Isis Patch, a compact, wireless, active iontophoretic patch using a design that implements advances in microprocessors, thin film batteries, biopolymers and adhesives.
In a statement sent to MassDevice, CEO Emma Durand said the current round “clearly shows the confidence of the investment community in Isis Biopolymer and our innovative transdermal drug delivery and biosensor technology.”
MassDevice Q&A: Maggie Pax
MicroCHIPS Inc. may have been the result of divine inspiration (as the story goes, MIT professor Robert Langer thought of the idea while watching PBS), but it took people like Maggie Pax to turn his vision into a suite of implantable devices that could one day revolutionize medicine.
