R&D Trends

Amicus Therapeutics, Biogen Idec collaborate for Parkinson's disease

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 01:38 PM

Amicus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for rare and orphan diseases, is collaborating with Biogen Idec to discover, develop and commercialize novel small molecules for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The collaboration will build upon preclinical studies at Amicus and independent published research that suggest increasing activity of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerobrosidase (GCase) in the brain may correct alpha-synuclein pathology and other deficits associated with Parkinson's.

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Roche, Inovio Pharmaceuticals partner

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 01:35 PM

Roche and Inovio Pharmaceuticals have entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement to research, develop and commercialize Inovio's multi-antigen DNA immunotherapies targeting prostate cancer and hepatitis B. The licensed compounds are currently in preclinical development.

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Certara, Critical Path Institute partner

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 01:33 PM

Certara, a provider of software and scientific consulting services to improve productivity and decision-making from drug discovery through drug development, is partnering with the independent nonprofit Critical Path Institute (C-Path) to develop a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model of the human lung.

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MEI Pharma acquires rights to Pathway drug candidate

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 01:29 PM

MEI Pharma, an oncology company focused on the clinical development of novel therapies for cancer, has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to the investigational drug candidate PWT143 from Pathway Therapeutics, a privately-held pharmaceutical company, for an undisclosed upfront payment with no future milestone or royalty obligations.

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Bayer, Broad Institute collaborate for cancer therapy

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 01:23 PM

Bayer HealthCare is collaborating with the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. for oncogenomics and drug discovery. The Broad Institute, a nonprofit biomedical research institutes, brings together scientists from Harvard, MIT and Harvard-affiliated hospitals, and has experience in genomics, cancer, chemical biology and drug discovery. They intend to jointly discover and develop therapeutic agents that selectively target cancer genome alterations over a period of five years.

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Biogen Idec, Isis Pharmaceuticals collaborate on neurological disorders

Monday, September 9, 2013 12:07 PM

Biogen Idec and Isis Pharmaceuticals have entered a broad, six-year research collaboration to leverage antisense technology to advance the treatment of neurological diseases. The agreement combines Biogen Idec's experience in neurology with Isis' antisense technology to develop novel therapies to treat neurological disorders.

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Activaero, Chiesi collaborate for cystic fibrosis drug device combination product

Monday, September 9, 2013 12:03 PM

Activaero, focusing on novel, pharmacoeconomically meaningful treatment solutions for severe lung diseases, has entered a research collaboration with Chiesi Farmaceutici.

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CellCentric selects Sygnature Discovery for epigenetic prostate cancer program

Monday, September 9, 2013 12:01 PM

Sygnature Discovery, a provider of integrated drug discovery services, has been selected by CellCentric, a biotechnology company with a scientific foundation in epigenetics, to progress small molecule inhibitor drug discovery against a specific deubiquitinase (DUB) enzyme which has been demonstrated to play a key role in the progression of prostate cancer.

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Sanofi, Pozen ink exclusive license agreement

Friday, September 6, 2013 02:59 PM

Sanofi and Pozen, a pharmaceutical company specializing in developing novel therapeutics for unmet medical needs and licensing those products to other pharmaceutical companies for commercialization, have announced an exclusive license agreement for commercialization of Pozen's proprietary, investigational, coordinated-delivery tablets combining immediate-release omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), and enteric-coated (EC) aspirin in a single tablet (PA), PA8140 and PA32540. Sanofi will have exclusive rights to commercialize all PA combinations that contain 325mg or less of enteric-coated aspirin in the U.S. Pozen will receive an upfront payment of $15 million and will be eligible for pre-commercial milestone payments of up to $20 million and other future milestone payments and royalties on product sales. 

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Arthritis Research U.K., MS Society to award $10 million in research grants

Friday, September 6, 2013 02:52 PM

Arthritis Research U.K. and the MS Societyare partnering three research councils in the second stage of a nationwide project, which will see $10 million made available to researchers in stem cell and tissue engineering research.

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