PharmaFocus Today – Page 113 – media

Portable Device Analyzes White Blood Cell Activity to Monitor Cancer Patients’ Health

Chemotherapy and similar treatments aimed at eliminating cancer cells often adversely affect patients’ immune cells. Each year, this results in tens of thousands of cancer patients suffering from weakened immune systems, making them susceptible to potentially fatal infections. Physicians are tasked with balancing the dosage of chemotherapy—enough to kill cancer cells but not so much as to dangerously reduce the patient’s white blood cell count, leading to neutropenia. This condition not only impacts health but can also lead to social isolation between chemotherapy sessions. Traditionally, monitoring of white blood cells has been limited to blood tests. Now, a new at-home white blood cell monitor offers doctors the ability to remotely monitor their patients’ health more comprehensively. This device, which avoids blood draws, uses light to scan the skin at the top of the fingernail and employs artificial intelligence (AI) to identify critically low levels of white blood cells. Based on ...
- Source: drugdu
- 136
- June 25, 2024
AI-Powered Blood Test Predicts Parkinson’s Seven Years before Symptoms Appear

Parkinson’s disease is currently the fastest-growing neurodegenerative disorder worldwide, affecting nearly 10 million people globally. It is a progressive disease caused by the deterioration and death of nerve cells in a part of the brain known as the substantia nigra, which is essential for movement control. These nerve cells diminish or become damaged, losing their ability to produce a crucial chemical, dopamine, often due to the accumulation of a protein called alpha-synuclein. Presently, treatments for people with Parkinson’s, such as dopamine replacement therapy, are initiated after symptoms like tremors, slow movements, gait issues, and memory problems have already appeared. However, there is a consensus among researchers that early prediction and diagnosis could lead to discoveries of treatments capable of slowing or halting the progression of Parkinson’s by protecting dopamine-producing brain cells. Now, a simple blood test employing artificial intelligence (AI) can predict the onset of Parkinson’s up to seven years ...
- Source: drugdu
- 162
- June 25, 2024
Tectonic bets on GPCR heart failure drug following reverse merger with Avrobio

Tectonic Therapeutic has completed a reverse merger with AVROBIO and will begin trading on the Nasdaq global market as Tectonic Therapeutic (ticker symbol ‘TECX’) on 21 June. Coinciding with the merger, the new company also completed a private placement of $130.7m with multiple US and European investors. Following the placement, Tectonic reported total cash reserves of $181m, before payment of final transaction-related expenses, which is expected to fund operations until mid-2027. As part of the merger, Avrobio enacted a 1-for-12 reverse stock split of its common shares, along with an issuance of a non-transferable contingent value right. Under that, shareholders will have the rights to cash payments received by Tectonic, if any, related to Avrobio’s pre-transaction legacy assets. Avrobio’s stockholders will own approximately 24.8% of the new company while old Tectonic shareholders, including the investors in the private placement, will hold 75.2% of the combined company’s outstanding common stock. The ...
- Source: drugdu
- 160
- June 25, 2024
Sarepta’s Elevidys secures US label expansion for DMD

Just a week after Pfizer revealed a Phase III trial failure for its mini-dystrophin gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Sarepta has announced that it has scored a US label expansion for its DMD gene therapy Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl). As per the 20 June press release, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded Elevidys’ label to include DMD patients with a confirmed mutation in the DMD gene who are at least four years of age. Based on its functional benefits, Elevidys was granted traditional approval for ambulatory patients and accelerated approval for the non-ambulatory population. However, according to the announcement, which drove Sarepta’s shares up 36%, further progression on the approval track hinges on validated clinical benefits from a confirmatory study. When the therapy’s durability came into question, particularly in a non-ambulatory population, Sarepta CEO Douglas Ingram said in an investor call held on 21 June, that ...
- Source: drugdu
- 188
- June 25, 2024
Researchers reveal genetic makeup could identify treatment options for sepsis

Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oxford and collaborators have revealed that genetic makeup could help determine the best treatment options for sepsis patients. Published in Cell Genomics, findings from the study could potentially lead to the development of targeted therapies to treat the condition. Responsible for 11 million deaths globally every year, sepsis is a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection, causing the organs to work poorly. Depending on patients’ immune responses, which can be difficult to identify based on symptoms alone, treatment for sepsis can vary. Built on previous studies that identified different subgroups of patients with sepsis, researchers analysed data from the UK Genomic Advances in Sepsis study, involving 1,400 sepsis patients due to community-acquired pneumonia and faecal peritonitis, to investigate the impact of genetic variants that regulate expression quantitative trait locus (eQTLs), a type of gene expression. After ...
- Source: drugdu
- 96
- June 25, 2024
Researchers design genetic mole reversal therapy for rare skin condition

Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute, University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) have created a new genetic therapy to alleviate debilitating moles in a rare skin condition. Published in the Journal of Investigate Dermatology, the treatment could help prevent affected children and adults from developing cancer. Covering up to 80% of children’s bodies at birth, congenital melanocytic naevus syndrome (CMN) is caused by progenitor-cell mutations during embryonic development that appear as large, painful or itchy moles, which can develop into severe melanoma. Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Caring Matters Now Charity, the Patient Support Group, LifeArc and the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Group Centre, researchers used a genetic therapy known as silencing RNA, which works to block the action of the mutation NRAS, which is mutated in ...
- Source: drugdu
- 95
- June 25, 2024
Philips launches stent system to restore blood flow in blocked veins

Dive Brief Philips has launched its Duo Venous Stent System in the U.S. to treat patients with blockages in their veins, the company said Wednesday. The implant, which won approval in December, is designed to address the root cause of chronic deep venous disease and comes in two forms for use in different types of veins. Philips acquired the device in its 2022 takeover of Vesper Medical. The company paid 227 million euros upfront for Vesper to expand its image guided therapy business. Dive Insight The Duo Venous Stent System is a portfolio of self-expanding stents mounted on disposable delivery devices. Vesper designed the stents to increase the diameter of obstructed veins. Restoring blood flow could improve quality of life by alleviating symptoms of venous disease, which include pain, swelling and discoloration of skin. Philips tracked improvements on observational quality-of-life endpoints in a trial of the device. Using data from ...
- Source: drugdu
- 144
- June 17, 2024
New insights into physical activity adoption for rheumatic patients

An HPR abstract sessions at the 2024 EULAR congress looked specifically at harnessing the benefits of exercise in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) – and the challenges to their practical implementation. Mohamed Saadi presented a systematic review examining barriers and facilitators affecting adherence to EULAR’s physical activity recommendations. Across 68 selected articles, 29 different themes were identified – 9 of which were social, 16 environmental, and 4 systemic. The five most frequently found themes were having supportive family and friends, a supportive health professional, followed by costs, and access or proximity to adapted and supervised programs. Importantly, there may be country-level differences in these three key factors. Social considerations include the level of support available, as well as whether people feel social pressure or body shaming, and if they have social physical activity built into their everyday lives – such as walking a dog or playing with children. Systemic differences ...
- Source: drugdu
- 159
- June 17, 2024
Barinthus Bio slashes headcount by 25% and refocuses pipeline

Much like the mythological navigator from which it takes its name, Barinthus Biotherapeutics is steering a new course of pipeline prioritisation and restructuring by shelving its prostate cancer candidate and a major workforce reduction. The UK-based T cell specialist – formerly known as Vaccitech – said it will prioritise its pipeline to focus on two of its immunotherapy candidates, VTP-300 and VTP-1000, in chronic hepatitis B and coeliac disease indications respectively. Shares in the Nasdaq-listed Barinthus opened 4.7% lower when the market opened on 13 June following the company announcement on 12 June. Barinthus’ market cap is $73m. As part of the pipeline shuffle, the biopharma said that it expects to undergo a restructuring which will include reducing its employee number by around a quarter. The company currently has a headcount of around 130 employees, according to GlobalData. Barinthus also plans to extend its cash runway into Q2 of 2026, ...
- Source: drugdu
- 113
- June 17, 2024
Flagship Pioneering and ProFound link for obesity therapies

Flagship Pioneering and ProFound Therapeutics have entered a partnership to develop new therapeutics for the treatment of obesity. The collaboration marks the first initiative executed under Flagship’s Pioneering Medicines deal with Pfizer announced in July 2023. Pioneering Medicines is the in-house drug discovery and development unit of Flagship and will spearhead the partnership’s efforts with Pfizer. ProFound’s ProFoundry Platform will be deployed with Pioneering Medicines’ capabilities in drug development to discover new proteins and assess their therapeutic potential to treat obesity. ProFound Therapeutics CEO and Flagship Pioneering CEO-partner John Lepore stated: “We are thrilled to be part of the Flagship and Pfizer partnership and to collaborate with Pioneering Medicines to discover and validate novel proteins that have the potential to lead to innovative, first-in-class medicines for patients with obesity. “Through our ProFoundry Platform, we have discovered and validated an extensive library of novel proteins that unlock a new universe of ...
- Source: drugdu
- 162
- June 17, 2024

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