By Matt Olszewski Pictured: FDA signage at its office in Washington, D.C./iStock, JHVEPhoto Appili Therapeutics announced on Monday that the FDA has approved its liquid oral reformulation of the antibiotic metronidazole, ATI-1501, for the treatment of antimicrobial infections in patients with difficulty swallowing pills or who are unable to get injections. The drug is a prominent oral treatment with more than 10 million U.S. prescriptions annually. The injectable form of the drug, commonly used for treating parasitic and anaerobic bacterial infections, has been in shortage in the U.S. since last year due to extreme demand and regulatory delays, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists “The current tablet form of metronidazole is the only other approved oral form on the U.S. market, but its bitter taste and lack of appropriate dosage forms for patients with difficulty swallowing often presents treatment compliance challenges,” according to Appili. Before the FDA’s approval ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Novartis logo on its office in California/iStock, JHVEPhoto Novartis’ radioligand therapy Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate) met its primary endpoint in the Phase III NETTER-2 trial in gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, the company announced Monday. NETTER-2 is a randomized and open-label trial that evaluated Lutathera as a first-line option in 222 patients with grade 2 or 3, advanced gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). Only those whose cancers were positive for the somatostatin receptor (SSTR) were eligible for enrolment into NETTER-2. When used in combination with high-dose long-acting octreotide, Lutathera led to a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS)—the study’s primary endpoint—compared with octreotide alone. In terms of safety, NETTER-2 did not find any new signals of concern and Lutathera’s adverse event profile in the study was consistent with what had been previously established. Novartis did not provide specific efficacy and safety figures, though it promised to do so ...
A study conducted by researchers at University College London and published in Cell revealed that if the protein mechanisms of COVID-19 variants are similar to those of other coronaviruses, it could potentially make identifying coronaviruses viruses with pandemic potential easier. The researchers looked at both the innate and adaptive immune systems – the two parts that form the human immune system. Innate immunity acts as the first line of defence. It is present from birth and tries to prevent infection spreading through a rapid response. Adaptive immunity, developing throughout our lives, enables us to recognise future pathogens by learning from past infections. The study, which focused on the ability of the most infectious COVID-19 variants to overcome our innate immune systems, found that variants could increase the production of proteins called Orf6, Nucleocapsid (N) and Orf96, to defeat our first line of defence. As a result, the virus has evolved ...
Danish biotech Acesion Pharma has raised €45m in an oversubscribed Series B financing round. The money will go towards funding the clinical development of the company’s atrial fibrillation therapy, AP31969. The investors that took part in the Series B financing round include Canaan, Alpha Wave, Global BioAccess Fund and Novo Holdings. AP31969 is an oral SK ion channel inhibitor that is being developed as a maintenance treatment to prevent the recurrence of atrial fibrillation. In March, Acesion announced that more than 50% of the participants in the Phase II AP31969 trial (NCT04571385) reported atrial fibrillation conversion to normal sinus rhythm within 90 minutes of infusion start, compared to zero participants in the placebo group. Atrial fibrillation is the most common form of arrhythmia or abnormal heart rhythm in which the top chambers of the heart (the atria) quiver or twitch, which is known as fibrillation. The US Centers for Disease ...
Amid a global expansion spree at WuXi Biologics, the company’s immunization-focused subsidiary has christened its inaugural CDMO site in China. Tuesday, WuXi Vaccines launched its first standalone vaccines contract manufacturing facility in Suzhou. With the plant, the company adds drug substance and drug product capacity for projects in various stages of development. WuXi Vaccines is a contract development and manufacturing organization that helps its partners tackle clinical- and commercial-stage vaccine projects across a range of modalities, including protein-, virus- and mRNA-based shots. The new site’s drug substance production area houses two cell culture lines and one purification line, teeing up drug substance production scales ranging from 50 liters to 1,000 liters, according to a release. WuXi Vaccines says it will also maintain 2,000 liters of reserve capacity at the facility. Meanwhile, the drug product facility is equipped with an automatic vial washing, sterilizing, filling and capping line, which can support ...
On a €1 billion quest to build a global mRNA network, Merck KGaA’s MilliporeSigma has rounded out its service offerings to include all key stages of mRNA development, manufacturing and commercialization.Tuesday, MilliporeSigma christened two new mRNA drug substance manufacturing sites in Darmstadt and Hamburg, Germany. The company has invested €28 million in the sites, where it plans to hire 75 new staffers, MilliporeSigma said in a release. The new facilities will be able to tackle a full range of mRNA services, from pre-clinical to commercial-scale projects, MilliporeSigma said. Those offerings will include analytical development and biosafety testing specifically designed for mRNA technologies, the company added. The facilities fall under the umbrella of MilliporeSigma’s €1 billion investment to advance mRNA technologies and build its global mRNA network. Employing 27,000 worldwide, MilliporeSigma sells life sciences companies the tools and tech needed for testing and manufacturing. It also operates a contract testing, development ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Woman grasping her stomach in pain/iStock, Doucefleur New data from the Phase IIa EMERALD-1 study showed that Morphic Therapeutic’s investigational ulcerative colitis pill MORF-057 induced endoscopic improvement, the company announced Friday. However, investors were underwhelmed with the candidate’s new efficacy findings and Morphic’s stock price dropped around 25% after the data was released. The new data, presented in a moderated poster session at the United European Gastroenterology Week (UEGW) 2023, showed that at 12 weeks, 25.7% of treated patients demonstrated endoscopic improvement. Clinical response, measured using the modified Mayo Clinic Score (mMCS), was documented in 45.7% of participants at 12 weeks. The UEGW data follow a prior readout from EMERALD-1, posted in April 2023, which showed that patients treated with MORF-057 saw a significant 6.4-point improvement in the Robarts Histopathology Index, a validated tool that measures histological disease activity in ulcerative colitis. This was accompanied by ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: AbbVie headquarters in California/iStock, Michael Vi AbbVie has terminated its license and collaboration agreement with I-Mab, the Maryland- and Shanghai-based biotech announced in an SEC filing posted Friday. As a result, I-Mab will regain the global rights to develop and commercialize all CD47 compounds covered by the deal, including the monoclonal antibody lemzoparlimab. The termination will take effect on Nov. 20, 2023 and will not affect the $200 million in upfront and milestone payments that I-Mab had already received from AbbVie. According to I-Mab’s SEC document, AbbVie is pulling away from the partnership as a “strategic decision,” though a prior program discontinuation also factored into its decision. AbbVie and I-Mab first entered into their global agreement in September 2020. For an upfront payment of $180 million and the promise of up to $1.74 billion in success-based milestones, AbbVie earned exclusive rights—outside of the greater China area—to ...
Dive Brief Boston Scientific has set bullish growth targets for 2024 to 2026, according to analysts. The company is forecasting that a “dramatic shift” to pulsed field ablation will increase its organic revenues by 8% to 10% over the period. Analysts went into Boston Scientific’s investor day expecting 7% to 9% growth. Some analysts left the event speculating that Boston Scientific can exceed its 10% target after being convinced that PFA and left atrial appendage closure can power the company toward its goal. Boston Scientific forecast that the global atrial fibrillation ablation market will grow from $5 billion today to $8 billion in 2026 and $11 billion by 2028. PFA’s share of the market is predicted to rise from less than 5% today to 40% to 60% in 2026 and 60% to 80% in 2028. Dive Insight Boston Scientific forecast an 8% to 10% organic sales compound annual growth rate ...
It is well known that sleep is the best medication. However, it is still unknown why the brain recovers better in sleep and whether these processes can be controlled. Recent discoveries have shown that the lymphatic system of the brain is activated during sleep, which contributes to the removal of metabolites, toxins and unnecessary molecules from its tissues. Sleep disturbance contributes to the deposition of metabolites in the central nervous system (CNS). For example, sleep is a biomarker for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This is due to the fact that the toxic metabolite beta-amyloid is excreted from brain tissue during sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to the accumulation of toxin in the CNS, which over time can lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In this pilot study, the researchers have shown that non-invasive sleep photobiomodulation technology can effectively increase lymphatic excretion of beta-amyloid from the brain tissues of mice ...
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