AstraZeneca and Merck & Co. announced on July 27, 2017 that they have entered a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize AstraZeneca’s Lynparza (olaparib) for multiple cancer types. Lynparza is an oral poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor for treating BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer in multiple lines of treatment. It was approved by FDA in December 2014 and generated 2016 sales of $218 million.
The Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA) is preparing to accept applications from early-stage startups focused on predicting, preventing and treating disease. Falls Church-based Inova Health System announced plans for the accelerator last December when it also launched Inova Strategic Investments, a venture-capital program. Both projects are housed at the new Inova Center for Personalized Health, a 117-acre campus in Fairfax County.
The road to launching a life science start-up can be a long and difficult one, with founders often struggling to secure funding and manage the logistics of setting up a business. In a move to encourage innovation and help start-ups hit the ground running, there are an increasing choice of accelerator and support programs becoming available.
We spoke to Giovanni Rizzo, PhD MBA Chief of Innovation Division, Z-Cube S.r.l. to learn more about such programs and the difference they can make to innovation, as well as share some tips for academics beginning a start-up venture.
Sucampo’s (NASDAQ:SCMP) share price has been stuck in a range for a considerable time, but the company wasn’t idle – management has been working hard to move the company away from its legacy product Amitiza into rare diseases. Sucampo made two transactions since early 2016 and now has two late-stage orphan assets (one wholly owned and an option on the other) with data readouts in 2018. Sucampo is generating strong free cash flow and expects to continue to build out its late-stage orphan drug pipeline. Meanwhile, Amitiza has been growing at a steady pace and that’s despite the growing competition in the constipation space. I believe that cash flow from Amitiza provides downside protection while the orphan pipeline stands to add significant value in the long run.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017 from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM
The MITRE Corporation, BHI, and Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation are pleased to announce the Innovation Bridge Breakfast Series at the Rockville Innovation Center. We hope you will join us for the first in a quarterly series of technology talks, geared to foster innovation and create connections among the regional entrepreneurial community.Sign-up soon! Registration is limited.
As the White House and the US Congress continue to lock horns over President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, scientists are once again anxious about funding levels. But more money is not enough to create better science. Indeed, the scientific enterprise has been betrayed by the mismanagement of its financial support.
In the craft-beer industry, the majority of hops — the flowers used in production that add bitterness and aroma to the product — come from the Pacific Northwest region.
Could Maryland, too, be a fertile region for hops?
GlaxoSmithKline will cut more than 30 drug development programmes and may sell its rare diseases unit, as the FTSE 100 group seeks to inject more “edge and pace” into its decision making, its new chief executive Emma Walmsley has said.
The day after emocha® Mobile Health, Inc., launched in 2013, CEO Sebastian Seiguer (pronounced SAY-ger) heard about a 3-year-old tuberculosis (TB) patient being treated at a Baltimore clinic. Maryland requires healthcare providers to watch patients take every dose of their medication for active TB treatment, an approach known as directly observed therapy (DOT). But coordinating with the clinic every day was proving too difficult for the girl’s mother to manage. To keep up with the treatments, she would have had to quit her job.
No area is hotter or attracting more dollars in pharma than immuno-oncology–the idea of harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. My fellow Forbes contributor Bruce Booth has recently characterized the intensifying interest in this space as the “exploding supernova” of cancer research.
