San Diego, USA and Cambridge, UK, 12 June, 2019: Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) and PhoreMost Limited today announced the signing of a research collaboration agreement between Ligand’s subsidiary Vernalis and PhoreMost on an undisclosed novel oncology target.
PhoreMost has identified and validated the target using its next-generation SITESEEKER® phenotypic screening technology. Ligand will now apply its Vernalis Design Platform (VDP) to design small molecule inhibitors against the target, to help rapidly progress compounds through hit-to-lead and lead optimization stages.…
An Innovation Day focused on the future of mobility has enabled leading global automotive supplier Magna International to make important connections with researchers, start-ups and companies in and around Cambridge.
Keen to find out about the latest developments, with a view to adding to its portfolio of products, Magna - which has 348 manufacturing operations and almost 100 product development, engineering and sales centres in 28 countries - partnered for a second time with Cambridge Network to identify likely contacts in the region.
Cambridge Network organised an Innovation Day at Cambridge…
The increasing popularity of the human microbiome in biotech has become a source of scientific and investor excitement in recent years. Microbiomes, or the genes of a community of microbial cells (or microbiota) which the body is host to, have unexpected benefits and implications for overall health, from regulating the immune system, to influencing conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cancer and aging. While it is in the gut that humans have the most diverse and densely populated microbiota, their influence and presence in other parts of the body has made the microbiome comparable to “a…
Cambridge, UK, 10 June 2019: Sphere Fluidics, a company commercializing single cell analysis systems underpinned by its patented picodroplet technology, announced today that it has closed an additional tranche of investment of $2.9 million (£2.2 million), securing a total of $4.8 million (£3.7 million) in investment. The funding will be used as working capital for the Company’s Cyto-Mine® Single Cell Analysis System, expansion of the UK facility and enable the doubling of personnel through the opening of a new US Sales Office and Demo Lab in California.
The funding round was led by Greenwood…
Astex welcomes positive, new data showing breast cancer drug, Kisqali® (ribociclib), cuts risk of death by up to a third when given with hormone therapy
Cambridge, UK, 7 June 2019 - A new set of statistically significant overall survival (OS) data unveiled at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract# LBA1008), and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, are being heralded as a major breakthrough for pre- and perimenopausal women with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced or metastatic…
• Cedazuridine and decitabine, administered orally as a fixed-dose combination (ASTX727), met the primary endpoint of decitabine exposure equivalence of total 5-day dosing between oral ASTX727 and IV decitabine in the phase 3 ASCERTAIN study in MDS and CMML patients
• The study confirmed that the safety profile and clinical activity of the cedazuridine and decitabine fixed-dose combination was similar to that observed in the phase 1/2 study and similar to the expected clinical profile of decitabine IV
• Astex plans to file a New Drug Application (NDA) with the US FDA by the end of 2019
•…
Instinctif Partners’ Corporate and Capital Markets practice has made two Managing Partner promotions in its UK business.
Nick Woods, who leads the Financial Services team, has become the company’s youngest ever Managing Partner, while Melanie Toyne-Sewell has been promoted within the firm’s Life Sciences team.
Melanie has been with the firm for nine years and leads on capital markets communications within the Life Sciences team. A seasoned financial PR, as well as a qualified accountant, she has developed a strong reputation and network within the European healthcare & life sciences…
Cambridge, 3 June 2019: PIR is delighted to announce the appointment of highly regarded executives to support its planned international expansion.
From today, PIR life sciences executive search and interim management will be joined by Tom Bradley and Stuart Penney as Senior Partners, Gemma Adamante as Senior Executive Researcher and George Owen as Executive Researcher.
These valuable additions to an already strong team will fuel the PIR drive to expand internationally within the life sciences sector.
Tom spent over ten years at Pfizer before…
Cambridge, UK 03 June 2019: Qkine, specialist manufacturer of proteins for stem cell, organoid and regenerative medicine applications has closed a further round of investment. The £550k funding round was led by Cambridge Enterprise and five angel investors – all of whom followed initial seed investments made in April 2018. Joining the original investors is biotech entrepreneur and founder member of the Cambridge Angels, Dr Andy Richards CBE.
Stem cells are revolutionising medicine by enabling new approaches for disease modelling, precision medicine and development of new therapeutics.…