Research and development - Today Stories

Construction of the UK’s New Vaccines Centre by Glencar Construction Starts Well Ahead of Schedule as Timelines are Fast Tracked Due to Covid-19 Harwell, Oxfordshire: Work has begun ahead of schedule to build the highly specialist facility that will house the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC). VMIC, a not for profit organisation, will provide the country’s first bespoke strategic vaccine development and manufacturing capability. A rapidly accelerated programme will aim to see the 7,000 m2 (75,000 sq ft - footprint) state-of-the-art facility opening its doors in 2021, ahead of the original scheduled date in 2022. VMIC was established by University of Oxford, Imperial College and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with support from industrial partners, Merck Sha…

Cambridge and Israeli scientists create a revolutionary air filter to capture and destroy coronavirus particles. A team of scientists and engineers from Cambridge, UK and Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Israel, have developed a revolutionary new carbon-based material that captures and destroys an animal coronavirus, a close relative of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The Active Virus Filter in the form of a thin carbon nanotube mat (TorStranTM) has the filtration and air permeability properties which allow it to capture free virus molecules and those contained in airborne aerosolised droplets. Both filtration and virus disruption take place at the same time allowing the filter to reduce the risk of infection by removing contamination from the air. We envisage it being particularly useful in c…

London, 14 April 2020 - Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today reveals that one of the most advanced supercomputers in the world, the powerful BullSequana X1000 installed at The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre, is providing supercomputing power to assist in global computational drug discovery efforts to help combat COVID-19. The Hartree Centre team is working closely with Washington University School of Medicine who lead the Folding@home project, which allows a global community of contributors to lend unused background capacity on their personal computers to power simulations of target drug interactions. While there is plenty of compute power[1] available to run these simulations, creating the drug structures to be simulated uses complex and…

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…

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have launched a project to 3D print ventilator parts, masks and other critical equipment to battle the Covid-19 virus. They are working with the tech community to access 3D printers, as well people with the necessary skills to work at pace to design and make equipment. They are also collaborating with healthcare providers to understand their needs, and hope to mobilise similar projects at other universities nationally and globally. Project lead Dr Aram Saeed, from UEA’s School of Pharmacy, said: “It is absolutely vital that universities join forces with healthcare providers and businesses to find creative solutions to fight Covid-19. “We need shortcuts to speed up the process of designing and developing key ventilator parts, and we hope to conne…

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…

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…

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…

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…

MONACO, PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO, AND NEW YORK, NY, USA, January 14, 2020: Lyfebulb, a patient empowerment platform that connects patients with industry to support user-driven innovation toward solutions in chronic disease, and Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care, announce the 11 Patient Entrepreneurs chosen as finalists for the Lyfebulb-Helsinn Cancer Innovation Summit & Award to be held on January 30, 2020. The following inspirational finalists represent companies that have been founded by cancer patients, cancer survivors or those with loved ones affected by cancer: Alexander Börve, PhD of First Derm Jakub Chudik of ConquerX Russell LaMontagne of Boston Immune Technologies and Therapeutics Robert Manning of CureMatch Gilles Pagès, PhD of InfA…

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…

Newcastle University is investing £280,000 with Arrayjet, the UK’s leading provider of microarray instrumentation technology, as part of its plan to establish a pioneering microarray centre for the northern half of the United Kingdom. The centre will be used by other university departments, as well as external life science and biotechnology research partners. The funding for the new centre was secured through the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 18ALERT fund.  This is designed to enable Universities to put in place cutting edge technology, whilst strengthening collaborations with Industry.  The centre is the brainchild of William Willats, Professor of Molecular Agri-Diagnostics at Newcastle University, whose own research investigates how plants respond and ada…

Happy New Year! Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2020 from everyone at PharmiWeb!