Industry news

Pfizer will invest $100 million into gene therapy development

GMP News

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. plans to invest $100 million in its US Sanford operations as part of a push into gene therapy, officials said. The effort builds on a technology developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will create 40 jobs in Sanford. Preliminary work on the expansion and initial hiring have already begun. The 230-acre campus employs about 450 people.

08 August 2017

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces Changes to its Board of Directors

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSD), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drug therapies to treat back-of-the-eye diseases, today announced that George Lasezkay, Pharm.D., J.D. has been appointed to its board of directors, effective immediately.  Dr. Lasezkay will succeed Derek Yoon, who resigned from the board as of August 8, 2017.

Siberians make cellular scaffolding to help organs grow, and grow fast

Marchmont Innovation News

Scientists at Tomsk Polytechnic (TPU) in Siberia have come up with a novel method of modifying polylactic-based biodegradable polymeric scaffolds, some sort of matrices that form the basis new organs and tissues would grow upon. The Siberian tissue-engineered scaffolds are said to interact well with the human immunity cells, accelerate cell structures growth, and even help stimulate new blood vessel proliferation. 

Dermatology faces big changes, but pharma can help ease transition: expert

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Time for a pharma facelift—when it comes to dermatology, that is. In the new landscape of mega-practices and competing medi-spas, pharma can best help dermatologists by helping them show value, according to research from Ogilvy Commonhealth.

07 August 2017

Clearside Biomedical Announces Completion of Patient Enrollment in Pivotal Phase 3 PEACHTREE Clinical Trial of CLS-TA for Suprachoroidal Administration in Patients with Macular Edema Associated with Non-Infectious Uveitis

Clearside Biomedical, Inc.  (NASDAQ:CLSD), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drug therapies to treat back-of-the-eye diseases, today announced completion of patient enrollment in the pivotal PEACHTREE clinical trial.  This Phase 3 clinical trial is evaluating the safety and efficacy of CLS-TA for suprachoroidal administration (“suprachoroidal CLS-TA”), Clearside’s proprietary suspension formulation of the corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide, for the treatment of macular edema associated with non-infectious uveitis. Patient follow-up in the PEACHTREE trial is 6 months.  Accordingly, Clearside currently expects to report top-line results from the trial in the first quarter of 2018.

High marks to State Program for the Development of Russian Pharma Industry

GMP News

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development presented to the Government its consolidated report on the implementation and assessment of effectiveness of the state programs for 2016.

Big Pharma veterans at Pfizer, AstraZeneca join the great migration to biotech

Shehla Shakoor / Endpoints News

Biogen has recruited Anabella Villalobos as its new SVP of biotherapeutic & medicinal sciences. The neurosciences vet was poached from Pfizer, where she was head of medicinal synthesis technologies.

Doctors say pharma rep details are stale, need updating for digital age

DRG

Despite the pharma sales force making great strides towards “digitizing the field” with tablets and other technologies – a new study from DRG Digital’s Manhattan Research finds that the content reps are showing in details is often old news. Physicians who see sales reps say that over half of the time (51%), the reps show them information they have already seen through their own research or in previous meetings.

Protons against cancer: new Russian discovery

Marchmont Innovation News

A team led by Svetlana Zaichkina of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics in Pushchino outside Moscow reportedly experimented with mice that had various cancers. The animals were exposed to proton radiation with a varying number of sessions, duration per session, and beam power. 

What's powering pharma toward the next digital frontier? One expert has an idea

Carly Helfand / FiercePharma

If there’s one word that best describes what’s been driving pharma to adopt digital technology, it’s “access,” one expert says—and he expects that trend to continue.