Industry news

NIH awards grant to upstart for nanotech, regenerative spinal implants

Stacy Lawrence / Fierce Medical Devices

Carmel, IN-based startup Nanovis is no stranger to nabbing research grants. It's just nabbed one from the National Institutes of Health for preclinical research on the use of its porous Forticore interbody fusion devices in combination with nanotube technology. The combination is expected to result in a surface that mimics nature and encourages regeneration around an implant.

Karolinska: Nanoparticle tech opens up new drug, vaccine targets

John Carroll / FierceBiotech

A new nanotech approach has been used to stabilize membrane proteins, an advance the investigators at the Karolinska Institute say should open up a new frontier for drug developers.

Study: Fitness devices useful in orthopedic surgery--could offer means to placate CMS

Stacy Lawrence / Fierce Medical Devices

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is implementing an ambitious requirement for patient engagement that takes effect starting next year. Hospitals are required to have more than 10% of patients engage with their electronic health record in some way, with a specific emphasis on patient-generated health data that must be incorporated into the records of more than 5% patients.

09 March 2016

Tobira Therapeutics Announces Publication of CENTAUR Phase 2b Study Design and Rationale in Contemporary Clinical Trials

Tobira Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TBRA), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other serious immuno-inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, today announced that the description of the fully-enrolled CENTAUR Phase 2b clinical trial design has been accepted as a manuscript and published online in the journal Contemporary Clinical Trials. 

09 March 2016

One-year Outcomes Data from Clinical Trial with ReVision Optics’ Raindrop® Near Vision Inlay for Treating Presbyopia Published in Ophthalmology, the Journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology

ReVision Optics, Inc., a leader in implantable presbyopia-correcting corneal inlay technology, announces that results from its ongoing Phase III U.S. FDA clinical study evaluating the Raindrop Near Vision Inlay for the treatment of presbyopia show significantly improved near visual performance and produced a 92% rate of satisfaction among study subjects one year following the procedure. T

09 March 2016

Marinus Pharmaceuticals Provides Business Update and Reports Third Quarter 2015 Financial Results

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:MRNS), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapeutics to treat epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders, today provided a business update on its clinical development activities and reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2015.

Immunizing the well and flushing the reservoir may be ways to HIV cure

Anette Breindl / BioWorld

Somewhat like a vaccine for HIV, a cure has been on the horizon yet out of reach for a frustratingly long time. "I think it's fair to say that the score card is not very impressive," Mario Stevenson, chief of the division of infectious disease at the University of Miami Medical School, told the audience at a the plenary session of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which is going on in Boston this week. He cited "40 million or so infected individuals worldwide and one documented cure" in form of "Berlin patient" Timothy Ray Brown.

Bio CEO dishes big city mix of business, policy, science

Jennifer Boggs / BioWorld

As always, the recent Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference offered a lively mix of tough business and policy topics along with in-depth looks at key therapeutic areas, notably oncology, Alzheimer’s disease and ophthalmology. There were some valuable insights which are worth sharing with a broader audience.

Survey: Half of U.S. docs expect to prescribe more biosims in the next three years

Carly Helfand / FiercePharma

Good news for biosimilar makers: Nearly half of U.S. docs are already planning to prescribe the knockoff drugs in the near term, according to a new survey.

After much delay, the EMA finally gears up for trial transparency drive

Ben Adams / FierceBiotech

The EMA has published new rules as it prepares for a watershed year that will see the life science industry in Europe make public more clinical trial data than ever before.