Industry news

Is Biogen the latest big biotech M&A target? Allergan and Merck are circling, WSJ says

Carly Helfand / Fierce Pharma

Industry watchers have been predicting for months that buyers would come for Biogen--and now, one report says, they have. Merck and Allergan have both reached out to the Big Biotech about a tie-up, The Wall Street Journalreported on Tuesday--and other potential suitors could be circling, too. So far, advances from the pair have been informal and preliminary, and there’s no indication yet that Biogen is interested, sources told the newspaper.

Biosimilars' safety and efficacy comparable to brand-name biologics

Amirah Al Idrus / Fierce Biotech

The companies behind biologic drugs argue that the branded drugs and their generic versions, dubbed biosimilars, are not interchangeable. But a new study suggests otherwise, at least for a class of biologics called TNF-α inhibitors, which are used to treat a number of diseases.

03 August 2016

Miramar Labs’ miraDry System Featured in Cover Story in The Aesthetic Guide

Miramar Labs, Inc., (OTCQB: MRLB), a global aesthetic company, announced today that the Company’s miraDry^® system is featured in a cover story in the July/August edition of The Aesthetic Guide. The miraDry system delivers microwave energy to non-invasively destroy sweat and odor glands in the underarm, and is also approved for permanent hair removal of the underarm. The cover story article, titled “Miramar Labs Creates New Markets with miraWave Therapy,” may be accessed on-line in the current issue of the magazine.

Only One Big Drugmaker Is Working on a Nanobot Cure

Matthew Campbell / Bloomberg

When Kris Famm was 15, he became obsessed with photosynthesis. He lived with his parents and older brother, Fredrik, on a farm not far from the Baltic coast in southeastern Sweden, in an expanse of gentle hills threaded with forests of birch and spruce. It was a paradise for two energetic boys, and they spent most of their free time outside, often with their grandfather. Leading Kris and Fredrik on long hikes through the woods, he taught them about trees and wildlife and the richness of the land, which he was the last in the family to till.

Regulus hopes for quick turnaround on FDA hold on hep C drug

Ben Adams / Fierce Biotech

Small cap Regulus Therapeutics ($RGLS) saw its shares nosedive last month when the FDA put a clinical trial hold on its leading hep C candidate RG-101--but the company said this morning it hopes to get all of its ducks in a row for the FDA to lift the hold by the start of Q4.

With superbug scourge looming, global group bets on biotechs to turn the tide

Damian Garde and Ed Silverman / STAT

Gunning to beat back a global scourge of superbugs, a transatlantic group is committing tens of millions of dollars, some of that from American taxpayers, to back biotech startups developing novel antibiotics.

Pfizer bags option on oncolytic virus, partners up to advance through PhI

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

Pfizer ($PFE) has secured an exclusive option to acquire Western Oncolytics’ WO-12. The deal gives Pfizer a chance to pick up the oncolytic vaccinia virus once it has completed Phase I, something the Big Pharma will work to achieve with its new partner. 

NIH-led researchers develop software that could facilitate drug development

U.S. National Institute od Health

A team of researchers led by a National Institutes of Health investigator, Teresa Przytycka, Ph.D., has developed a new software tool called AptaTRACE that could be an important advance for drug developers and other scientists who want to identify molecules that bind with high precision to targets of interest.

01 August 2016

Study Shows Corneal Structural Changes Induced by ReVision Optics’ Raindrop® Near Vision Inlay Significantly Improve Near and Intermediate Vision in Subjects with Presbyopia

ReVision Optics, Inc., a leader in implantable presbyopia-correcting corneal inlay technology, announces clinical results indicating that structural changes induced by the corneal shape-changing Raindrop Near Vision Inlay leads to significantly improved near and intermediate vision in subjects with presbyopia, with no loss of distance binocular acuity. 

01 August 2016

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces Promotion of Glenn Noronha, Ph.D. to Chief Scientific Officer and Jennifer M. Kissner, Ph.D. to Vice President, Clinical Development

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSD), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye, today announced that  Glenn Noronha , Ph.D., has been promoted to Chief Scientific Officer and  Jennifer M. Kissner , Ph.D., has been promoted to Vice President, Clinical Development. Both Drs. Noronha and Kissner will assume their roles immediately and will report to  Daniel H. White , CEO and President of  Clearside Biomedical .