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HERNDON, VA. (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 08, 2023

Global life expectancy has more than doubled over the last two centuries, from less than 30 years to more than 72 years.(1) Despite the advances during the ‘golden age of medicine’ throughout the first half of the 20th century, for persons living with rare diseases, 26% still die before the age of five, and depending on the severity of the disease, 37% have a reduced life expectancy.(2) Pharmaceutical companies were historically loathe to research and develop life-saving drugs and treatments for rare diseases because it wasn’t profitable marketing drugs to such a small segment of the population. Rare disease patients became known as ‘orphans,’ having been abandoned by prescription drug manufacturers.(3) In 1983, the U.S. Congress passed the Orphan Drug Act to incentivize drug manufacturers to pursue the development of drug treatments for rare diseases. Dr. Harsha Rajasimha is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Indo-US Organization for Rare Diseases (IndoUSrare), a not-for-profit organization that seeks to bridge the gap between the western and eastern hemispheres when it comes to orphan diseases. He notes, “It has been 40 years since this watershed moment in the research and development of treatments for rare diseases. While we celebrate our significant progress, we must continue to look toward the still foggy road ahead.”

2022 was an incredibly productive year for American scientists. Biopharmaceutical researchers conducted over 7,000 clinical programs, including more than 3,000 for cancer, 182 for cardiovascular diseases, 111 for Alzheimer’s, and 57 for Type II diabetes. Importantly, 77% of these therapeutics originated at small biotech companies working toward their first breakthrough.

The biggest controversy surrounding the Bayh-Dole Act — which allows academic institutions and private contractors to own and manage inventions they make with federal funds — is the false claim that the law allows the government to relicense patents on these inventions to ensure that prices of resulting products are “reasonable.” While this claim has been widely bandied about, it has been rejected by every administration that has considered it for the past 20 years because that’s not how the law works. Still, attempts to undermine Bayh-Dole in this way continue.

Dear scientific community,

The European programme ApogeeBio has launched the 2nd international call for 12 postdoctoral positions in Genopole biocluster, Paris region (FR).

It offers attractive allocations, up to €3000 net monthly salary for 24 months duration and hosting possibilities in both academic and private sectors within Genopole campus

The deadline is extended to February 28, 2023

ApogeeBio programme and its partners provide the fellows with a support in the income mobility organization and in setting  their career development plan after the postodoc period.

Please so not hesitate to share with your networks. More here >>> https://bit.ly/ApogeeBio2022Call

KaloCyte’s experimental synthetic red blood cell product ErythroMer could provide a solution to the high need for treating trauma in both military and civilian settings. The company was tapped to participate in a federally-funded program to develop a synthetic blood substitute.

Image: https://biobuzz.io/

Richmond, Virginia, Feb. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Phlow Corp., a U.S.-based public benefit corporation leveraging advanced manufacturing processes to re-imagine the domestic production of pharmaceutical products critical to U.S. healthcare, announced today the formation of the Phlow Business Advisory Board made up of internationally recognized pharmaceutical, biotech, and healthcare leaders who bring a wealth of knowledge and industry experience to the company; the addition of Melinda Hancock of Sentara Health System to Phlow’s Board of Directors; and the promotion of Dan Hackman from Chief Business Officer to President.

Stronger sales in Europe and the U.S. helped offset declining demand in Japan for the Medical Business Unit of Japanese industrial conglomerate Canon for the company’s fiscal 2022. The company said that sales in the medical division grew almost 7%, to the highest level in the history of the business unit.

For the year, Canon Medical saw sales of 513.3 billion yen ($3.970 billion), representing growth of 6.9% compared to the full-year 2021 numbers. The medical division’s income before taxes fell by 7% to 31.9 billion yen ($246.7 million) – the prior-year numbers were boosted by an increase in deductions related to a corporate acquisition.

Image: https://caseyinsights.com/

⦁ First placebo-controlled study of an engineered cell therapy

Gaithersburg, MD, January 31, 2023 – Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully integrated, clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering RNA cell therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, has dosed the first participant in its Phase 2b randomized controlled trial (RCT) for generalized myasthenia gravis (MG), an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness and fatigue. The RCT will evaluate the efficacy and safety of the company’s lead asset, Descartes-08, a first-in-class, RNA-engineered chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (rCAR-T).

AURP’s BioHealth Caucus will examine topics, including:

• Economic impact of the biotech industry in the U.S.
• New biotech hubs growing in VA, NC, OK, MO, and NH
• Building the biotechnician workforce
• Bio innovation impact from the federal multi-billion-dollar CHIPS + Science Act
• Significance of the Bayh-Dole Act and life science IP to keep the U.S. competitive
• Bio manufacturing in space
• Award winning life science incubators, accelerators, and labs
• Importance of the business press covering the biotechnology community
• NIH funding for small business bio hubs
• Emerging role of quantum computing in drug discovery
• Special presentations from state bio infrastructure in MA and MD
• Plus, an optional tour of Harvard’s Science and Engineering building and Harvard Allston Enterprise Research Park

The newly established Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) will accelerate cutting-edge biomedical and health research, moving discoveries from the laboratory to patients more quickly, sustainably and equitably than ever before. As the agency seeks to remove roadblocks to solving some of the biggest challenges in health today, Montgomery County, Md., is uniquely positioned to support this crucial federal agency and the ideal home for ARPA-H.

Image: MCEDC