Clinical research - Today Stories

University of East Anglia researchers are launching a new study to see how Covid-19 and lockdown are affecting people with bone, joint and muscle pain. Their previous research has revealed the challenges and poor health outcomes caused by social isolation and loneliness for people with conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lower back pain, osteoporosis and fibromyalgia. Now, the team are looking for people with bone, joint and muscle pain to take part in a 12-week online survey to see how they are coping at this difficult time of coronavirus self-isolation. The study is being led by Dr Toby Smith, from UEA’s School of Health Sciences, and Prof Alex MacGregor, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School. Dr Smith said: “Bone, joint and muscle pain is a major cause of disability for pe…

-       Novel Carbohydrate Binding Modules (mCBMs) block entry into airway cells for a range of viruses causing respiratory tract infections -       Results show Pneumagen’s mCBMs demonstrate activity against coronaviruses   28th April 2020 – St Andrews, Scotland – Pneumagen Ltd, a University of St Andrews spinout, focused on treating infectious disease and oncology by targeting the human glycome, today announced results from three separate in vitro studies into preventing coronavirus infections including SARS-CoV-2 infection the cause of COVID-19 using Neumifil™ and other first-in-class multivalent Carbohydrate Binding Modules (mCBMs), generated using its proprietary GlycoTarge™ platform. Working closely with Public Health England’s Porton facility, and separately the University of Glasgo…

PARIS and TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – March 30, 2020 – The first patient outside of the U.S. has been treated as part of a global clinical program evaluating Kevzara® (sarilumab) in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19. The global clinical program has now been initiated in Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Canada, Russia and the United States – all countries that have been impacted by COVID-19. This is the second multi-center, double-blind, Phase 2/3 trial as part of the Kevzara COVID-19 program, and the companies are continuing to work with health authorities around the world to secure initiation at additional sites. This follows Sanofi and Regeneron’s announcement earlier this month of the initiation of the first trial, which is U.S.-based. “Sanofi and Regeneron are relentlessly working to rapi…

PharmiWeb Ltd, owners of Europe's largest Pharma Job Board, are pleased to announce that they have launched their latest job board for Pharma and Life Science Jobs in Australasia. The new job board will focus on the Pharma, Life Sciences & Medical Devices sector in Australasia and will give the region's job seekers a new dedicated website for their job hunting.    The site is built upon on the well-established Madgex job board platform already used by many major organisations globally, and ensures it will be continually updated with new technological advances such as AI and machine learning and new features that will help candidates find the best jobs and recruiters find the best candidates. For life science candidates, it provides the perfect platform to help them with their career de…

London, United Kingdom, Tuesday 10 March - George Health, a profit-for-purpose company, today announces £27 million / $35 million of new financing to accelerate the commercialisation of affordable drug treatments and technologies for some of the world’s biggest killers. This funding round was led by Bupa Australia, Federation Asset Management and the Australian Government-backed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund Biomedical Translation Fund (MRCF BTF), managed by Brandon Capital Partners. The investments are set to fast-track the growth of George Health Enterprises, the commercial arm of the world-leading George Institute for Global Health, and George Medicines, its late-stage drug development company. George Health Enterprises will receive almost £17 million from Federation Asset Man…

– Gilead Gains Forty Seven’s Investigational Immuno-Oncology Therapy in Multiple Clinical Studies for Diseases Including Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma – – Transaction Supports Gilead’s Strategic Focus in Oncology and Gives Access to Potential New First-in-Class Program and Innovative Pipeline – FOSTER CITY, Calif. & MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) and Forty Seven, Inc. (Nasdaq: FTSV) announced today that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Gilead will acquire Forty Seven for $95.50 per share in cash. The transaction, which values Forty Seven at approximately $4.9 billion, was unanimously approved by both the Gilead and Forty Seven Boards of Directors and…

CROMSOURCE announced today the achievement of a significant milestone in the digital management of clinical research projects for their clients. In February 2020 CROMSOURCE initiated the 1000th trial to be managed within the advanced TheClinical digital environment. TheClinical, developed by Techorizon, consists of customisable, integrated modules dedicated to the efficient digital management of every aspect of clinical research and development projects. ‘Digitalisation is a key foundation of our working philosophy, and has been a significant source of our investment for many years’, commented CROMSOURCE CEO, Dr. Oriana Zerbini. ‘Our adoption and development of digital technologies provides our clients with benefits in efficiency, quality and visibility on their projects.’ ‘Our clients typ…

Developing drugs to treat rare diseases is fraught with challenges; these range from trying to recruit from tiny patient populations to fill much-need clinical trials to the complex reimbursement landscape for these innovative, and often bespoke, therapies. GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Technology writer Allie Nawrat looks at three case studies of companies on the verge of having treatments for largely ignored rare diseases approved. Restoring DNA repair functionality to cells: Rocket’s Fanconi gene therapy Nawrat Says: “Fanconi anaemia (FA) is a rare paediatric inherited disease caused by a mutation in the FANC genes. Patients with Fanconi experience bone marrow failure as they are unable to create new blood cells. “Rocket wants to change this situation with its lentiviral vector gene the…

The Office for Life Sciences announces Harwell as one of six new designated Zones in the UK - the only one in Oxfordshire/ Thames Valley Thursday 20th February, Harwell, Oxfordshire: Announced today by the Office for Life Sciences, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus has been designated as a Life Sciences Opportunity Zone, which is awarded for a 10-year period. Harwell, already a world-renowned science and technology campus, is now one of only seven locations in the UK [six announced today], and the only one in Oxfordshire / Thames Valley, to hold the title. With this status secured, Harwell’s Life Sciences capabilities will continue to grow as the announcement further underscores the role of the Campus as a national hub for health and Life Sciences research, and a launch platform for co…

19th February 2020: Cegedim UK announces the launch of a new Mobile App for Healthcare Professionals. The app showcases Cegedim’s powerful clinical decision support web-services which everyday enable over 5,000 pharmacies to dispense and over 4,000 GP’s to safely select and prescribe medicines for patients. The app brings together technology and data to demonstrate the novel capabilities of Cegedim’s solutions to support clinicians, solutions providers and healthcare providers to provide safe and effective care in a scalable and cost effective package. The new online application is aimed at GPs, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals and provides access to up to date, unbiased and reliable medical information, for optimum clinical decision-making.  The App references Cegedim’s drug…

The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak shows no signs of slowing down, and developments in the unfolding story are so rapid that it can be difficult keep track of them. GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Technology team have produced a free-to-access dashboard to keep industry, media, and the public, up-to-date with the latest developments in the coronavirus outbreak and a range of tools to provide key information. The dashboard contains: Breaking news and regional reports Maps and trackers of confirmed cases, global spread, deaths and recoveries Timeline of events from the first cases to the latest news Social media tracking analysing trending keywords, hashtags, mentioned companies and countries An FAQ resource answering common questions Click on the link below to visit the web page. https://www.phar…

San Diego, CA and London, UK – February 11, 2020 –PHASTAR, a global CRO, announced today that the company has chosen San Diego as the site for its new U.S. west coast office, which will be led by Dr. LaRee Tracy, PhD, as Director of Biostatistics.  The San Diego office will serve as a strategic operational hub to support PHASTAR’s west coast customers and is a key component of the company’s current 5-year growth plan.   Dr. Tracy brings to PHASTAR more than 24 years’ experience in clinical research, industry regulation and clinical operations, including over 16 years working as an FDA CDER statistician. Her areas of expertise include biostatistics, experimental and observational study design, as well as significant experience with FDA processes and regulations. “We are excited to add San D…

Both Edwards Lifesciences and Teva won four Golds and one Silver each, making them joint top of the pharma charts. Roche won two Golds and two Silvers and Reckitt Benckiser (RB) two Golds. Other Gold winners on the client side included ALK, Heart UK, Immunocore, Janssen, Mundipharma, Novo Nordisk and Santen.    The event is the largest in the industry awards calendar and attracts around 900 people from across pharma companies and agencies to the largest ballroom in Park Lane. The ceremony was skilfully hosted by Claudia Winkleman in combination with comedian Zoe Lyons and everyone’s favourite voice, Alan Dedicoat, the voice of Strictly.  Although the Gold Awards were dominated by Havas Lynx Group and VCCP, there were 21 different agencies and 30 different pharmaceutical or healthcare organ…

Both Edwards Lifesciences and Teva won four Golds and one Silver each, making them joint top of the pharma charts. Roche won two Golds and two Silvers and Reckitt Benckiser (RB) two Golds. Other Gold winners on the client side included ALK, Heart UK, Immunocore, Janssen, Mundipharma, Novo Nordisk and Santen.    The event is the largest in the industry awards calendar and attracts around 900 people from across pharma companies and agencies to the largest ballroom in Park Lane. The ceremony was skilfully hosted by Claudia Winkleman in combination with comedian Zoe Lyons and everyone’s favourite voice, Alan Dedicoat, the voice of Strictly.  Although the Gold Awards were dominated by Havas Lynx Group and VCCP, there were 21 different agencies and 30 different pharmaceutical or healthcare organ…

From an increase in sales of interleukin inhibitors to the prevalence of biosimilars, this decade has been an eventful one in the immunology industry. Patrick Aiyes, Senior Immunology Analyst at leading data and analytics company GlobalData, observes the key trends that has shaped the immunology market in the last decade: Key immunology drugs “The immunology market has seen a continuous increase in the sales of interleukin inhibitors and a decrease in the sales of TNF inhibitors - primarily because of the entry of biosimilars into the market and the increased safety profile associated with interleukin inhibitors. Abbvie’s Humira will end the decade as the highest grossing drug of 2019, generating sales of approximately $19bn globally, while Janssen’s Stelara will be the highest-grossing i…

Following the news that sepsis has been found to be a bigger killer than cancer worldwide in a study by Rudd et al; Kasey Fu, Director of Epidermiology at GlobalData, provides her view: “The *7MM will see diagnosed incident cases of sepsis grow at an annual growth rate (AGR) of 2.06% per year over the next ten years from 2.5 million cases in 2016 to 3.1 million in 2026. By these estimations, this year will see around 600,000 cases of septic shock and close to three million cases of intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalized sepsis.  “The study by Rudd et al, published in Lancet, was an impressive and enormous undertaking. Looking at the study's robust and comprehensive methodology, it is not surprising that sepsis incidence was found to be twice as what was known previously. Compared to most…

Fasenra being evaluated in eight eosinophil-driven diseases beyond severe asthma AstraZeneca today announced three new trials for Fasenra (benralizumab) in skin diseases, adding to five trials already underway for the medicine in eosinophil-driven diseases (EDDs) beyond severe asthma. In EDD, immune system dysfunction causes eosinophil recruitment and activation leading to chronic local and/or systemic inflammation.1 The three new trials for Fasenra in skin diseases include two Phase II trials to assess the potential of the medicine in atopic dermatitis (AD) and chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU); and a Phase III trial in bullous pemphigoid (BP). Five additional Phase III clinical trials are underway to investigate the potential of Fasenra in: Disease Trial name Estimated data readout …

BIOGEN TO ACQUIRE NOVEL CLINICAL STAGE ASSET WITH APPLICATION IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND PARKINSON’S DISEASE FROM PFIZER INC PF-05251749 is a CNS-penetrant regulator of circadian rhythm with potential to address behavioral and neurological symptoms across various psychiatric and neurological diseases  Biogen to pay Pfizer $75 million upfront plus potential milestones of up to $635 million, and royalties  PF-05251749 complements the Company’s pipeline of potential disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BIIB) today announced an agreement to acquire from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) PF-05251749, a novel CNS-penetrant small molecule inhibitor of casein kinase 1 (CK1), for the potential treatment…

Ashfield Pharmacovigilance Inc. becomes part of Ergomed’s PrimeVigilance division, bolstering its market-leading position as a global independent specialist pharmacovigilance provider and establishing a platform for the broader Ergomed services business in the US Combined business expands PrimeVigilance’s geographic coverage in the strategically important US market and strengthens global service offering Acquisition adds over 40 new clients to PrimeVigilance and a strong order book of contracted future revenues of $9.8 million Ashfield Pharmacovigilance Inc. reported $11.6 million revenue and $0.9 million adjusted EBITDA in the year to 30 September 2019 and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings   London, UK – 13 January 2020: Ergomed plc (LSE: ERGO) ("Ergomed" or the "Compa…

Frankfurt, Germany – 7th January 2020: PharmaLex Group, one of the most experienced and most successful specialist providers of Development Consulting, Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Epidemiology & Risk Management, and Quality Management & Compliance worldwide, have completed the merger with CompliMed in the United Kingdom. CompliMed is the UK’s leading Healthcare Compliance Consultancy specialising in the ABPI Code of Practice. Their services include training, e-learning, outsourcing, audits, SOPs, medical review and final signatory support. By joining forces with CompliMed, PharmaLex will extend its services in healthcare compliance, further enabling its customers to maximise promotional effectiveness whilst complying with legislation and codes of practice during their en…