Research and development - Today Stories

Collaboration to Focus on Oral and Injectable Formulations of Lenacapavir andIslatravir Agreement Brings Together Potentially Complementary Medicines in Late-StageDevelopment with the Goal to Provide Innovative, Long-Acting Treatments in HIV Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) and Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that they have entered into an agreement to co-develop and co-commercialize long-acting treatments in HIV that combine Gilead’s investigational capsid inhibitor, lenacapavir, and Merck’s investigational nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor, islatravir, into a two-drug regimen with the potential to provide new, meaningful treatment options for people living with HIV. Islatravir and lenacapavir are both pote…

World Glaucoma Week is a global initiative of the World Glaucoma Association (WGA) in order to raise awareness on glaucoma. Through a series of engaging worldwide activities, patients, eye-care providers, health officials and the general public are invited to contribute to sight preservation. The goal is to alert everyone to have regular eye (and optic nerve) checks in order to detect glaucoma as early as possible. World Glaucoma Week 2021 is taking place from 7th - 13th March. Think global, act local Each year, the World Glaucoma Week adopts a common theme, which is adapted to local conditions, and yet unifies our efforts. To be effective, community awareness projects need to be relevant for the general population. That means they need to be based locally and thus, rely on individuals in…

ConserV Bioscience Limited ("ConserV"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing vaccines that protect against endemic and emergent infectious diseases, and eTheRNA immunotherapies NV ("eTheRNA"), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on mRNA antigen delivery and immunostimulation using its ground-breaking TriMix technology, have agreed to collaborate on the development of vaccine candidates for infectious diseases. It is anticipated that by combining ConserV's and eTheRNA's technologies, the new vaccines will induce potent immune responses to protect against highly mutagenic viruses. This collaboration brings together ConserV's expertise in identifying broadly-protective antigens and eTheRNA's TriMix immunostimulatory mRNA technology and novel lipid nanopartic…

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has completed a £5 million investment in a new two-storey centre for biocatalysis, flow chemistry technologies and peptide research and development. Almac Sciences has grown rapidly over the last 5 years with significant investments in its non-GMP and GMP manufacturing plants to support increased client manufacturing demands. Adding to this growth, the first phase of expansion for technology development has been completed with the opening of a new facility housing additional R&D scientists to develop new technology and projects for Almac’s established biocatalysis, flow chemistry and peptides businesses.  Additional capacity has also been created to enable further growth of its chemical development offering. The 2,000m2, two-storey dedicated…

World Encephalitis Day is the global awareness day for people who have been directly or indirectly affected by encephalitis. Founded by The Encephalitis Society in 2014, it is held on February 22 each year and has reached over 186 million people through media features, events and social media. It is our hope that it will play a leading role in our mission to increase global awareness of encephalitis and therefore saving lives and building better futures. For this year's Lights Camera Action campaign we are lighting up over 90 global landmarks around the world and encouraging supporters to go #Red4WED by wearing red on Monday, 22nd February, and telling people about why it is important more people know about encephalitis. Encephalitis Facts Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain – a dev…

The University of Glasgow has entered into a research collaboration with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company, that aims to discover and validate the next generation of drug targets for immunological diseases. The £4.6million research collaboration, due to last four years, will work across four diseases – psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibrosis and vasculitis – and will be led by the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation. The collaboration will allow scientists from UofG and Lilly to work together in order to drive the research forward – a move researchers hope will help enable the identification of first-in-class therapeutics for people suffering with these devastating and costly conditions. For instance, rheumatoid arthritis alone a…

Continued partnership will enhance experience for customers and colleagues and help accelerate cloud innovation on next-generation network BT today announced a new, multi-year agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) to continue to be the company’s network partner in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Under the agreement, BT will work to transform WBA’s networking and enhance the customer and colleague experience with the deployment of next-generation technology.Steve Rempel, senior vice president and international chief information officer, WBA, said, “We chose BT because we share a focus on delivering standout customer experiences. Our digital plans demand full visibility, control and security of applications and data crossing our network so we can join up in-store and online experienc…

Researchers from the UCL Division of Infection & Immunity will lead on two collaborative projects with AstraZeneca. The projects’ long-term aim is to contribute to the development of new cancer treatments. These research collaborations will investigate immune checkpoints which are key biochemical pathways that regulate our body’s immune responses. These are important in a number of conditions, including cancer and autoimmune diseases.  Immune checkpoints carry out the important role of keeping our immune response at normal levels, and therefore not harming healthy cells. However, they can also ‘block’ specialist cells within our immune system from attacking and destroying cancer cells. Checkpoint inhibitor drugs, a type of immunotherapy, have revolutionised cancer treatment in the last…

On 4th February we celebrate World Cancer Day 2021 – a day that unites people, communities and entire countries to raise awareness and take action. Show your support for life-saving research by wearing your Unity Band®, or making a donation. What is World Cancer Day? World Cancer Day is led by the UICC, the Union for International Cancer Control. Cancer Research UK is one of its thousand members from across 172 countries, and we also sit on the board. World Cancer Day is one singular initiative under which the entire world can unite together in the fights against the global cancer epidemic. Cancer is a global challenge. In 2018, 18 million people world-wide were diagnosed with cancer. Today, thanks to research, 2 in 4 people in the UK survive their cancer for 10 years or more. The prospect…

£0.5M investment in mass spectrometry support accelerates biologics development and approval   Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 26 January 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced additional  expansion of its biologics testing laboratory with significant investment in mass spectrometry equipment. The new high-resolution mass spectrometer has been installed at Almac’s global headquarters, located in Northern Ireland, and will support its biologics offering for the analysis of peptides, proteins, glycoproteins and antibody products. This adds to the existing industry support at its new biologic testing laboratory based in Athlone, Ireland, announced just three months ago, which supports QC release and characterisation of biologics. The £500,000 investment in a Thermo Or…

21st January 2021 – St. Andrews, Scotland – Pneumagen Ltd, focused on preventing and treating respiratory infections by targeting the human glycome, today announced a further GBP2.5 million investment from existing investors plus a new undisclosed global corporate investor, based in the US. The investment will be used to support the clinical development of Neumifil™ in 2021 as an intra-nasal formulation for the prevention and treatment of influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and COVID-19. This additional investment follows on from last year’s announcement of a GBP £4 million investment, and brings the total amount of financing raised to circa £9.5 million. Neumifil™ is a first-in-class Carbohydrate Binding Module (mCBMs), generated using the Company’s proprietary GlycoTarge™ platfo…

Start-up from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute brings together 15 years of world-leading research on N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) and breakthrough discoveries related to its inhibition in cancer Initial financing of £4.5M from venture capital syndicate of experienced life sciences investors, Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital Partners Led by a team of world-class scientists and drug developers with a track record of big pharma/biotech and academic successes Stevenage, UK, November 16, 2020 - Myricx Pharma (‘Myricx’), a drug discovery company focused on developing small molecule inhibitors that selectively target the human N-myristoyltransferases (NMT) in cancer, today unveiled an initial £4.5 million in seed financing from experienced venture investors, Sofinno…

World Antibiotic Awareness Week aims to increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers and policy makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.A global action plan to tackle the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines was endorsed at the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in May 2015. One of the key objectives of the plan is to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education and training.

The Chief Executive of the UK’s pharmaceutical industry association has today warned MPs about the consequences of not agreeing a comprehensive post-Brexit trade deal or an urgent agreement on medicines while the trade talks continue. Richard Torbett told the Commons EU Future Relationship Committee that negotiators must consider the impact of causing unnecessary disruption and delays for UK and EU medicines whilst in the midst of a global pandemic. The Committee heard that companies were working in a constant state of emergency with supply chains under incredible pressure from COVID-19: "We need the bare minimum in order to safeguard risk to the supply chain [for medicines]. If we don’t get this there will be increased complexity, duplication and cost – the last thing we need during COVI…

It’s been 6 months since PharmiWeb, Europe’s largest pharma job board, launched our job board in Australia. Despite the backdrop of COVID-19, a massive thanks go out to all of our clients and all of the talented individuals who have engaged with our site, and come on board!We’re looking forward to the next 6 months as we continue to raise PharmiWeb’s profile across the continent, and help more and more Australian Life Sciences organisations recruit the best talent from PharmiWeb's ever-growing talent pool.If you would like more information regarding Pharmiweb and what our unique services can do for you, contact Sue or Laurel:Sue van Vuurensue.vanvuuren@pharmiweb.comTel: +61 (0) 468 625 626Laurel Steynlaurel.steyn@pharmiweb.comTel: +61 (0) 423 665 441Find Out More Here #pharmiweb #pharmajob…

After months of waiting, the official NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app for England and Wales is now available.   Protect your loved ones with the official NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app for England and Wales. It's the fastest way of knowing when you're at risk from coronavirus (COVID-19). The quicker you know, the quicker you can alert your loved ones, and your community.  The more of us that use it, the better we can control coronavirus. Protect your loved ones. Please download the app.

David Spencer-Percival founded Spencer Ogden and Huntress - two globally successful recruitment firms Life Science People launches with a commitment to boost employment opportunities post Covid-19 London, 01 September 2020: David Spencer-Percival, serial entrepreneur and founder of two globally successful recruitment businesses, Huntress and Spencer Ogden, is launching his latest venture, Life Science People. With a personal investment of £2m and an initial team of 20, Spencer-Percival’s team have set their sights set on ambitious growth, with plans to have a London office of 100 by December, and nine international offices within five years. In launching Life Science People he continues his commitment to hiring and training graduates, something he has maintained throughout all of his ven…

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Glasgow, has announced findings that could pave the way to a new treatment for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The breakthrough findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, identify a new class of drugs that reverse the symptoms of asthma in animal models. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Researchers also found that the same drugs, when applied to lung samples obtained from human donors, showed effects similar to those seen in the animal models. Scientists believe that these combined findings offer new hope that these drugs could provide new medicines for human inflammatory lung disease. The drugs u…

Green shoots of recovery are emerging within the manufacturing sector, as evident in new findings from InfinityQS’ 2020 Global Client Survey. The results show a positive upturn in the industry, with nearly 74% of respondents reporting that they are optimistic toward the future. These manufacturers are adapting and rebounding in the wake of the pandemic, adopting new technologies and processes for managing production and controlling quality, including 75% who noted more of their workers are now working remotely.  To enable this remote work and build greater flexibility and resiliency into their processes, manufacturers are rapidly adopting technologies, such as cloud computing. Additional results from InfinityQS indicate that an acceleration in digital transformation initiatives is occurrin…