After seven people died in 2013 from serious allergic reactions to Omontys, an injectable anemia drug marketed by Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO:4502) and Affymax, the companies recalled the product and regulators launched an investigation to find out the cause of such an unexpected rate of anaphylaxis. Omontys was made and cleared in a single-use vial and a multi-use […]
TapImmune brings therapeutic vaccines into the clinic for ovarian, breast cancer
In the past decade, new innovations and well-funded research have heralded in the era of immunotherapy. The pace of change within the field has amazed Peter Hoang, the chief executive of a Jacksonville, Fl.-based company working to develop therapeutic vaccines for cancer. “15 years ago, if you or I walked into a venture capitalist’s office, […]
ASTRO ’17 Round-up: Novocure touts five-year results for Optune, chemo combo in newly-diagnosed glioblastoma patients
Novocure (NSDQ:NVCR) touted data today from the Phase III pivotal trial of its Optune device in combination with temozolomide for the treatment of newly-diagnosed glioblastoma. The analyses were presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s 2017 annual meeting in San Diego. The company’s EF-14 trial showed unprecedented five-year survival results in patients with newly-diagnosed GBM, […]
Study: Women with esophageal cancer fare better than men
The survival rate for esophageal cancer is, according to Dr. K. Robert Shen, bleak. Last year, there were 17,000 Americans diagnosed with the disease and nearly 16,000 of them died, the Mayo Clinic cardiothoracic surgeon told Drug Delivery Business News. “It’s almost reached an epidemic,” Shen said. “It doesn’t get a lot of airplay and […]
Mayo Clinic, nference launch startup to leverage AI for drug development
Mayo Clinic and nference today launched a startup, Qrativ, focused on drug development driven by artificial intelligence. The company, backed by a $8.3 million Series A round, plans to combine nference’s AI platform and Mayo Clinic’s clinical data. Qrativ hopes to use AI to discover potential new therapeutic indications for drugs earlier in development, in […]
Study: Nanoparticle shrinks tumor size by 80% in mouse model
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic have developed a type of cancer-fighting nanoparticle that is designed to shrink breast cancer tumors and prevent recurrence. In a mouse model, the therapy yielded a 70-80% reduction in tumor size and mice treated with the nanoparticles demonstrated resistance to future tumor recurrence a month later. The nanoparticle is coated […]
Medtech stories we missed this week: April 21, 2017
From new and renewed partnerships to FDA approvals, here are medtech stories we missed this week but thought were still worth mentioning. 1. Life Spine receives FDA clearance for cervical spacer system Life Spine announced in an April 19 press release that it has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Plateau-C Ti Cervical Spacer System. The system uses […]
New blood-based test could detect all lung cancer types
Exact Sciences and the Mayo Clinic recently collaborated on a blood-based lung cancer test that researchers say has shown high accuracy for detecting all stages of lung cancer. “These results reveal an opportunity to detect lung cancer from a simple blood draw,” said Kevin Conroy, chairman and CEO of Exact Sciences, in a news release. “Our […]
Researchers develop 3D-printed, bioabsorbable scaffold for ACL reconstruction
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic‘s tissue engineering and biomaterials laboratory have developed a 3D-printed, porous scaffold for the delayed delivery of recombinant-human bone morphogenetic protein 2, rhBMP-2, to facilitate bone regeneration in patients undergoing ACL reconstruction. The team’s work developing the scaffold and comparing different delivery methods for rhBMP-2 was published this week in Tissue Engineering. […]
