Drug Discovery and Development Archives - Page 156 of 159

The hottest life science hubs in the U.S.

Boston at night [Photo by Lance Anderson on Unsplash]

Boston, San Francisco and San Diego remain the leading U.S. life science hubs — hauling in 70% of all the venture capital in the space last year, according to a new report from commercial real estate services company JLL.

Venture capital funding matters, according to JLL, because it fuels innovative companies that then require more real estate space. It’s little wonder that Boston and San Francisco led other clusters with respect to development, with 2.7 million square feet and 4.0 million square feet respectively under construction.

Get the full story on our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Wiley launches KnowItAll 2020 software

John Wiley & Sons today announced the launch of its KnowItAll 2020 software for drug classification using infrared analysis.

The Hoboken, N.J.-based company acquired the informatics KnowItAll spectroscopy software and spectral databases in April and is now debuting the new streamlined interface and tools to accelerate the analysis of unknown compounds, along with the drug classification capabilities, according to a news release.

KnowItAll 2020 includes new search parameters, streamlined spectral processing, quick classification for designer drugs and compounds, enhanced multi-technique searches, increased chemical intelligence, Drug Enforcement Agency controlled substance predictions and enhanced structure drawing.

“Coupled with over 2 million high-quality reference spectra, KnowItAll 2020 enhances Wiley Science Solutions – providing an integrated, one-stop solution for spectral identification and data management,” Wiley Research senior VP & chie…

PerkinElmer launches open data site for COVID-19 treatment research

PerkinElmer recently launched an online, open-access COVID-19 data dashboard for the global scientific community.

The dashboards are powered by the company’s data analytics and data visualization solutions to help researchers quickly and easily leverage large amounts of drug compounds and clinical trial data.

The COVID-19 dashboards are supported by PerkinsElmer’s Signals Lead Discovery and the TIBCO Spotfire advanced analytics platform with built-in artificial intelligence functionality. They offer an easy to use solution for searching, aggregating and visualizing complex, scientific data.

Using the platform, scientists can narrow down the 1.6 million compounds that are publicly available by querying a curated chemical substance dataset and related activity data provided by a division of the American Chemical Society known as CAS.

CAS COVID-19 Antiviral Candidate Compound data is an open source Data collection Assembled by scientists …

Moderna launches Phase 3 study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Moderna Logo (PRNewsFoto/Moderna Therapeutics)

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) announced today that it began dosing participants in the Phase 3 clinical study of its mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna’s COVE (coronavirus efficacy) study is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

The company had previously announced on June 11 that it expected to begin the Phase 3 trial at some point this month. At that point, it had already fully enrolled the first cohort of healthy adults between ages 18-53 in the Phase 2 study, 13 days after the first participant was dosed, having prev…

HHS taps Pfizer to produce millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

Two U.S. government agencies today announced an agreement with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) for production and delivery of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, along with the U.S. Defense Dept., agreed to the large-scale production and U.S. delivery deal once Pfizer’s vaccine is successfully manufactured and approved. In addition to the 100 million doses initially agreed upon. the U.S. government will be able to acquire an additional 500 million doses.

Pfizer will deliver the initial 100 million doses if the vaccine candidate receives FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) or licensure once a Phase 3 clinical trial is complete, demonstrating safety and efficacy in the fight against COVID-19. The timing of the agreement is designed to allow quick shipment once approval is garnered in an effort to meet the U.S. gov…

Hackers targeted pharma and other IP for Chinese government, indictment claims

A federal grand jury in Spokane, Wash. has indicted two Chinese nationals on charges that they hacked into pharma companies and hundreds of other businesses, governments and organizations — in some cases on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

The 11-count indictment, which the U.S. Department of Justice announced today, alleges that Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi for the past 10 years targeted companies in countries with high technology industries, including the United States. They stole terabytes of data.

“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cybercriminals in exchange for those criminals being ‘on-call’ to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist party’s insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies’ hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research,” Assistant Attorney General for National Securi…

Oxford researchers report positive early trial results for COVID-19 vaccine candidate

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

Researchers at Oxford University say early-stage results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate display safety and strong immune responses.

Results, published in The Lancet, revealed that the vaccine is safe, causes few side effects and induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system in the fight against COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2.

Get the full story at our sister site, MassDevice.

Johnson & Johnson Q2 results beat The Street amid pharma sales uptick

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) posted second-quarter results today that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street — boosting its outlook for the year even as its medical device sales took a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The New Brunswick, N.J.–based medical device and pharmaceutical giant reported profits of $3.6 billion, or $1.36 per share, on sales of $18.3 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2020, for a bottom-line decline of –34.6% and a sales decline of –10.8% compared with Q4 2017.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.67, 19¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking EPS of $1.48 on sales of $17.5 billion.

Most of J&J’s Q2 sales hit came from its medical device business, which saw a year-over-year sales decline of –33.9% as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a deferral in medical procedures. Consumer health was down –7.0%, while pharmaceuticals were up 2.1%.

During today’s earnings …

Boston Sci reportedly looking to sell snake antivenom business

[Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash]

Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) is exploring selling its snake antivenom products business, according to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources.

A Boston Sci spokesperson told MassDevice via email that the company has a practice of not commenting on speculation.

Boston Scientific acquired the antivenom business during its $4 billion acquisition of BTG, which closed last year. Its products include CroFab, touted as the only FDA-approved product exclusively derived from U.S. snakes. CroFab to date has treated more than 50,000 people suffering from bits from snakes including rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths/water moccasins.

The BTG acquisition also included devices for vascular and oncology applications, as well as drugs for treating overdoses.

Mydecine Innovations acquires NeuroPharm

Mydecine Innovations today announced it entered a definitive share exchange agreement to acquire 100% of NeuroPharm.

Mydecine Innovations will acquire all issued and outstanding shares in the capital of NeuroPharm for $6 million, which will be payable in common shares in the capital of the company.

NeuroPharm is currently developing evidence-based medicine of psychedelic based therapies to address mental health conditions that are frequently experienced by veterans and frontline workers. Mental health conditions include PTSD, depression, addiction, anxiety, Panic disorders and migraine and cluster headaches.

“According to recent published data, as many as 20 veterans on average commit suicide per day in the U.S. alone, and, to me, this is a heart-breaking staggering statistic that unfortunately is overlooked by so many. We owe everything to our veterans, EMS and frontline personnel, yet the best solutions for their long-term mental health are curre…

PerkinElmer expects strong Q2 results from COVID-19 testing

PerkinElmer (NYSE:PKI) said today that it anticipates sales growth of approximately 12% for the second quarter, fueled by demand for COVID-19 tests and related products.

The Waltham, Mass.-based diagnostic and scientific instrument company said demand for its RT-PCR and serology tests, RNA extraction systems and kits and automated liquid handling instrumentation was particularly robust. COVID-19 related solutions contributed approximately $190 million of revenue in the quarter ended July 5, 2020, the company noted.

All is not sunny for PerkinElmer, however. A May report by Reuters said the company is under federal scrutiny for alleged involvement in a scam to bill Medicare for tens of thousands of unnecessary genetic cancer tests. PerkinElmer said at the time that it was unaware of such an investigation.

Shares in PKI were up 4% this morning to $105.52 on the news.

PerkinElmer will release its second quarter 2020 financial results on Tuesday, July…

Biopharmaceutical companies pledge more than $1 billion to develop new antibiotics

More than 20 biopharmaceutical companies around the world have pledged more than $1 billion toward the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Action Fund that launched today.

Pledges include $100 million from Pfizer and $50 million from Boehringer Ingelheim.

An initiative of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), the fund’s goal is to bring two to four new antibiotics to market by 2030. The collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, philanthropies, development banks, and multilateral organizations is meant to re-invigorate antibiotic development — which has been lagging amid a rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant infections.

“Unlike COVID-19, [antimicrobial resistance] is a predictable and preventable crisis. We must act together to rebuild the pipeline and ensure that the most promising and innovative antibiotics make it from the lab to patients,” said Thomas Cueni, director general of the IFPMA.