Medical comms - Today Stories

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Novartis today announced an expanded collaboration with the Banner Alzheimer's Institute (BAI) to initiate a new trial – the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative (API) Generation Study 2. This trial follows the launch of the Generation Study 1, and will determine whether the BACE1 inhibitor CNP520 can prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms in a high-risk population. BACE1 is an enzyme that plays an important role in the production of Amyloid β, a protein which accumulates in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's disease years before clinical symptoms begin. More information on the sites participating in Generation Study 2 can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov and in the website www.GenerationProgram.com. "As a leader in the challenging fight to…

Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, today announced the acquisition of 100% shares of BioClin Laboratories, an independent and privately owned organisation based in Athlone, Ireland. Established in 2002 and located in Garrycastle, just two hours away from Almac Group’s Headquarters in Northern Ireland, BioClin is internationally recognised for providing expert analytical services including cGMP pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical analysis, GMP microbiology testing and GLP bioanalysis. The company also boasts Ireland’s leading GLP certified (INAB), cGMP certified (HPRA) and FDA registered contract laboratory. BioClin’s bespoke 14,000sq ft modern facility significantly increases Almac’s analytical capacity and perfectly complements its ex…

Novartis announced today, that it has entered a memorandum of understanding with Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) under which Novartis intends to commence a tender offer for 100% of the share capital of AAA subject to certain conditions. Advanced Accelerator Applications (NASDAQ:AAAP) is a radiopharmaceutical company that develops, produces and commercializes Molecular Nuclear Medicines including Lutathera® (177Lu-DOTATATE), a first-in-class RLT product for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Radiopharmaceuticals, such as Lutathera, are unique medicinal formulations containing radioisotopes which are used clinically for both diagnosis and therapy. The transaction would strengthen Novartis' oncology presence with both near-term product launches as well as a new technology platform with pot…

Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) today announced that it has entered into a settlement and license agreement with Celgene Corporation that resolves patent infringement litigation in the U.S. related to Celgene's Thalomid®.  The license agreement permits Lannett to manufacture and market in the U.S. its generic thalidomide product as of August 1, 2019 or earlier under certain circumstances.  As mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Thalomid® is subject to Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program, which is designed and implemented during the commercialization of a pharmaceutical product to ensure an acceptable risk-to-benefit ratio for products that are known to exhibit specific risks. "I congratulate my staff and colleagues for showing the cour…

Tokyo, Japan, Basking Ridge, NJ, and Berlin, Germany – (October 30, 2017) – Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo) and Glycotope GmbH (hereafter, Glycotope) have signed an option agreement for future strategic collaboration and licensing to develop an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) by combining Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary ADC technology with Glycotope’s investigational tumor-associated TA-MUC1 antibody PankoMab-GEX®.   Under the terms of the agreement, once a feasibility study has been successfully completed, Daiichi Sankyo has the right to exercise its option for worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialize PankoMab-GEX ADC. If Daiichi Sankyo exercises these rights, Glycotope will receive an upfront payment as well as development and sales milestone…

ICON plc, (NASDAQ: ICLR) a global provider of drug development solutions and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, and the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), a non-profit organization with the mission of driving value based health care, shared the findings of a global patient outcomes benchmarking platform at this week’s ICHOM’s annual conference in Washington DC. The platform aims to catalyse physician driven learning and improvement of the outcomes that matter most to patients. ICON and ICHOM first partnered to advance value-based healthcare through the launch of a global healthcare outcomes benchmarking pilot program called GLOBE in March 2016.  The pioneering work of the GLOBE pilot program, through its collab…

Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMCL) today announced that Hackensack Meridian Health has chosen the Company's automated medication management solutions and enterprise services to serve the health care network's pharmacy needs. Hackensack Meridian Health serves New Jersey residents spanning from Bergen to Atlantic counties through its 13 hospitals and more than 140 ambulatory care centers, fitness and wellness centers, home health services, rehabilitation centers, and skilled nursing centers. Hackensack Meridian Health recognizes that having cohesive medication management technology across its healthcare system can play an integral role in improving clinical operations, specifically by promoting patient safety, supply chain efficiencies, and overall standardization efforts. As a nationally accred…

Microsoft and PAREXEL form cloud technology alliance aimed at accelerating the pace of drug development Companies seek to drive digital transformation of the biopharmaceutical industry by combining PAREXEL’s drug development expertise with Microsoft Azure. REDMOND, Wash., and BOSTON — Oct. 24, 2017 — Microsoft Corp. and PAREXEL International Corp., a leading global biopharmaceutical services organization, on Tuesday announced a technology development alliance aimed at driving innovation across the life sciences industry with technology powered by Microsoft Azure. The collaboration between Microsoft and PAREXEL is designed to help the industry accelerate drug development and bring new therapies to patients sooner. The companies will combine Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure, intell…

AMRA, the international leader in body composition analysis, and BioTelemetry Research (“BTR”), a leading global imaging and cardiac core lab, announced today the formation of an exclusive alliance for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) clinical trials. This first-to-market partnership will advance imaging science and benefit clinical trial sponsors in several musculoskeletal and metabolic therapeutic areas. In clinical studies, muscle and fat fractions have traditionally been measured by scanning individual organs such as the liver, or particular body regions such as the abdomen. Commonly, researchers would prefer to scan the entire body in order to learn exactly where study participants are losing or gaining muscle or fat mass. However, un…

Micro Interventional Devices, Inc.™ (MID) announced today the second successful implantation of its MIA (Minimally Invasive Annuloplasty) technology.  The patient was enrolled in the first arm of the STTAR (Study of Transcatheter Tricuspid Annular Repair) clinical trial studying the safety and efficacy of MID's MIA device designed to eliminate or greatly reduce tricuspid regurgitation.  This is the second patient enrolled in the surgical arm of the STTAR study utilizing a bicuspidization approach.  The procedure took less than 14 minutes.  The rapid, reproducible deployment of the MIA implant resulted in a 24% reduction in annular area and a reduction in tricuspid regurgitation from moderate regurgitation pre-procedure to trace regurgitation post-procedure.  As wi…

Cardax, Inc. (OTCQB:CDXI) announced today that it has entered into a mutual exclusivity agreement with General Nutrition Corporation ("GNC") for ZanthoSyn, the Company's premium astaxanthin dietary supplement for inflammatory health and longevity.* The exclusivity agreement builds on the Company's recently announced national rollout of ZanthoSyn across GNC's more than 3,200 US corporate stores and now designates GNC as the exclusive "brick-and-mortar" retailer of ZanthoSyn in the United States. ZanthoSyn will also continue to be available online at gnc.com, amazon.com, and zanthosyn.com. The exclusivity agreement covers the use of ZanthoSyn as a human dietary supplement, with an initial term of two years and provides for automatic renewals. The exclusivity obligation is subject to GNC c…

GIMDx, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "GIMDx") announced today that it has concluded an exclusive OEM and International Distribution agreement for IncellDx, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "IncellDx") single cell immune-oncology and oncology diagnostic products in China. GIMDx will supply its parent company, Guangzhou Improve Medical Instruments Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Improve Medical"), with IncellDx component products which will be kitted and co-labeled for the Chinese IVD market. Products included in the agreement are IncellDx's proprietary single cell quantification of Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) on tumor cells and immune cell subtypes, single cell HPV E6/E7 mRNA detection for cervical cytology, and the IncellPREP® tissue single cell suspension system for solid…

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS) announced today that it has entered a collaboration with Seventh Sense Biosystems, Inc. (7SBio), a private medical device company developing TAP™, a novel, push-button, blood collection device to make blood testing more convenient and virtually painless. As part of its commitment to the collaboration, Ionis has made a strategic investment of $2 million in 7SBio as part of a Series C financing that will also include other investors. 7SBio aims to create a new standard for blood collection that increases patient compliance with blood testing by improving patients' experience with blood collection, leading to faster diagnoses and better outcomes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved TAP for the collection of blood by a healt…

Plasticell, the biotechnology company specialising in stem cell screening and cell therapy development, has entered into a collaboration with GSK to use its combinatorial stem cell screening technology, CombiCult®, to optimise the directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to specific blood cell lineages for use by GSK in its therapeutic research. In the collaboration, Plasticell will use its CombiCult® technology to screen combinations of molecules provided by GSK to identify and optimise iPSC differentiation protocols. Plasticell’s proprietary technology will allow the simultaneous screening of multiple iPSC lines, facilitating the development of a robust protocol that is applicable across lines. Commenting on the collaboration, Plasticell’s founder and Executiv…

CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the "Company") (Nasdaq: CASI), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics addressing cancer and other unmet medical needs for the global market with a commercial focus on China, announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with certain institutional and accredited investors, including existing shareholders, to purchase approximately $23.8 million of securities in a registered direct offering.  CASI expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $23.3 million after deducting agent's fees and other offering expenses.  CASI has agreed to sell an aggregate of approximately 7,951,868 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock. …

Leadership at Jefferson and the Monell Center announced today the signing of a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to move forward with discussions of merging the two organizations. The proposed merger would combine Monell, the world's leader in taste and smell research, with research operations at the new Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) and Jefferson Health to open new frontiers that will take transformative discoveries about the senses and translate them into clinical practice. "We will be able to go further than ever before to link the senses to health," said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health. "When you combine our clinical work with the entrepreneurial, academic environment of our Univers…

UPMC WorkPartners, a leading provider of integrated health and productivity solutions and part of UPMC Insurance Services Division, today announced the acquisition of HCMS Group, LLC (HCMS), a privately-held health information service company headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyo. For more than two decades, WorkPartners has partnered with employers nationwide to assist them in reducing health care costs and improving worker productivity. WorkPartners' expansive product portfolio includes tailored health management and wellness offerings, employee assistance programs, workers' compensation coverage, employee health services, short-term disability management, FMLA programs, and benefit administration services. The acquisition of HCMS will complement and further strengthen this portfolio. "We look…

CryoLife, Inc. ("CryoLife"; NYSE: CRY), a leading medical device and tissue processing company focused on cardiac and vascular surgery, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire JOTEC AG ("JOTEC").  JOTEC is a German-based, privately-held developer of technologically differentiated endovascular stent grafts, and cardiac and vascular surgical grafts, focused on aortic repair.  The combination of CryoLife and JOTEC will create a Company with a broad and highly competitive product portfolio focused on aortic surgery, and will position CryoLife to compete strongly in the important and growing endovascular surgical markets. Pat Mackin, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of CryoLife, said, "We believe this acquisition will enable CryoLife…

The MED Group, a Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. (MHA) company, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with HealthCall® LLC, a medical communications company and the first provider of patented Automated Patient Response™ solutions. The MED Group is a leading group purchasing and member services organization serving the home medical equipment industry. The new strategic partnership with HealthCall addresses the most challenging post-acute care populations and the need for reduction of hospital readmissions. For MED members, this paves the way to support a broader section of chronic care management and capture hospital-to-home transitional care opportunities above and beyond today's equipment-centric HME space. To enable optimum care and reduce unnecessary hospital readmission…

Therapix Biosciences Ltd. (Nasdaq: TRPX) ("Therapix" or the "Company"), a specialty, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focusing on the development of cannabinoid-based treatments, today announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Catalent Pharma Solutions, the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies and development solutions for drugs, biologics and consumer health products, for the formulation, development and clinical manufacturing of THX-TS01, a first-in-class, proprietary investigational drug candidate for the treatment of the symptoms of Tourette Syndrome. Pursuant to the agreement, Catalent will develop THX-TS01 in softgel form in support of Therapix's clinical development program and in accordance with current good manufacturing practice (cGMP).…