R&D Trends

China’s type 2 diabetes market forecast to grow to $3.5 billion by 2017

Wednesday, August 14, 2013 01:20 PM

Decision Resources, a research and advisory firm for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, forecasts the type 2 diabetes therapeutic market in China, the third largest after the U.S. and Japan, will grow 10% annually, reaching $3.5 billion in 2017. Fueling this expansion are the growing number of drug-treated patients and the increasing use of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-IV) inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and insulin analogues.

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MRC Technology, Parkinson's U.K. launch joint call for targets

Wednesday, August 14, 2013 01:12 PM

MRC Technology, a technology transfer organization, and Parkinson's U.K., a support and research charity, have announced a joint call for targets. The call aims to identify and fund either one or two projects focused on potential small molecule or antibody targets to slow, stop or reverse the progression of Parkinson's. The call to academic researchers seeks to fund target validation and proof-of-concept studies prior to initiating a full-scale drug discovery project.

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Torrey Pines Investment, BioMotiv partner for drug development investments

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 10:30 AM

San Diego, Calif.-based Torrey Pines Investment (TPI), a specialty life-science investor, and BioMotiv, an accelerator company associated with The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, have signed a joint investment framework to fund early stage life-science programs and companies over the next seven years. 

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PTC Therapeutics announces milestone in SMA collaboration

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 10:00 AM

PTC Therapeutics has announced the selection of a development candidate in its spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) collaboration with Roche and the SMA Foundation. The achievement of the milestone triggers a $10 million payment to PTC from Roche.

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Stem Cell Therapeutics acquires license option

Monday, August 12, 2013 01:15 PM

Stem Cell Therapeutics (SCT), a biopharmaceutical company developing cancer stem cell-related therapeutics, has entered into an option agreement to exclusively license worldwide rights to a series of prostate cancer stem cell assets from the University of York, U.K. The assets originate from research funded by and conducted at Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) under the direction of professor Norman Maitland.

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Nuevolution launches collaboration

Monday, August 12, 2013 01:12 PM

Nuevolution is collaborating with Duke University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals for the investigation of the biological mechanism of action of a specified GPCR drug target. The Principal Investigator for Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is Robert J. Lefkowitz, a Duke faculty member, HHMI employee and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2012.

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U.K. grants $192.4 million to researchers

Friday, August 9, 2013 01:20 PM

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has granted $192.4 million to health researchers across the U.K. to tackle the nation’s most pressing health problems.

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NIH, Lacks family share genomic data of HeLa cells

Friday, August 9, 2013 01:17 PM

The National Institutes of Health has reached an understanding with the family of the late Henrietta Lacks to allow biomedical researchers controlled access to the whole genome data of cells derived from her tumor, commonly known as HeLa cells.

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GSK launches Action Potential Venture Capital for R&D

Friday, August 9, 2013 01:11 PM

GlaxoSmithKline has announced the launch of Cambridge, Mass.-based Action Potential Venture Capital (APVC), a $50 million strategic venture capital fund that will invest in companies that pioneer bioelectronic medicines and technologies.

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MedNet Solutions, Heart Imaging Technologies partner

Friday, August 9, 2013 01:08 PM

MedNet Solutions, a global life sciences technology company specializing in clinical study management systems, and Heart Imaging Technologies (Heart IT),  providing web-based medical image viewing and management solutions, have  partnered to  integrate Heart IT's WebPAX technology with MedNet's eClinical solutions.  This integration improves the speed, accuracy and efficiency of clinical trials that rely on the collection and analysis of DICOM images.

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