Today Stories

4D pharma plc (AIM: DDDD), a pharmaceutical company leading the development of Live Biotherapeutic products (LBPs) - a novel class of drug derived from the microbiome, today announces the appointment of John Beck as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and member of the Company's management team, bringing over 30 years of experience in finance, including three previous positions as Chief Financial Officer of publicly traded life sciences companies. "John will be an important addition to 4D pharma's management team at such a pivotal time, as the company prepares to close our SPAC merger and begin trading on NASDAQ. His deep experience and financial expertise as a CFO of several publicly traded life sciences companies will be critical as we further grow our company and global footprint," said Dunca…

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Pandion Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PAND) today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement, under which Merck, through a subsidiary, will acquire Pandion, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics designed to address the unmet needs of patients living with autoimmune diseases, for $60 per share in cash. This represents an approximate total equity value of $1.85 billion. “This acquisition builds upon Merck’s strategy to identify and secure candidates with differentiated and potentially foundational characteristics,” said Dr. Dean Y. Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “Pandion has applied its TALON technology to develop a robust pipeline of candidates desig…

The consolidation brings together two organizations with a history of robust growth and performance ready to build on this strength using the outstanding talent of both companies to deliver enhanced value to patients, customers, employees and shareholders. All customers will benefit from increased functional, geographic and therapeutic scale as well as expansive healthcare technology innovation. The combination will address the growing market need for de-centralised and hybrid trial solutions from a differentiated combination of mobile and connected health platforms, a global site network, home health services and wearables expertise. The combined business will be no. 1 or 2 in key clinical market segments and have formal strategic partnerships with a majority of the top 20 biopharma comp…

What? Rare Disease Day takes place on the last day of February each year. The main objective of Rare Disease Day is to raise awareness amongst the general public and decision-makers about rare diseases and their impact on patients' lives. The campaign targets primarily the general public and also seeks to raise awareness amongst policy makers, public authorities, industry representatives, researchers, health professionals and anyone who has a genuine interest in rare diseases. Why? Building awareness of rare diseases is so important because 1 in 20 people will live with a rare disease at some point in their life. Despite this, there is no cure for the majority of rare diseases and many go undiagnosed. Rare Disease Day improves knowledge amongst the general public of rare diseases while enc…

Transformative partnership reunites University of Toronto and Novo Nordisk to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin and jumpstart a new era in precision public health. Novo Nordisk A/S and the University of Toronto (U of T) today announced a DKK 200 million (CAD 40 million) investment to establish the Novo Nordisk Network for Healthy Populations. The network will focus on new ways to support healthier urban populations and will draw on U of T’s leading expertise in public health research and education programmes to impact the global fight against diabetes and other serious chronic diseases. Based at U of T Mississauga, the new network will be a partnership between the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and University of Toronto Missi…

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has completed a £5 million investment in a new two-storey centre for biocatalysis, flow chemistry technologies and peptide research and development. Almac Sciences has grown rapidly over the last 5 years with significant investments in its non-GMP and GMP manufacturing plants to support increased client manufacturing demands. Adding to this growth, the first phase of expansion for technology development has been completed with the opening of a new facility housing additional R&D scientists to develop new technology and projects for Almac’s established biocatalysis, flow chemistry and peptides businesses.  Additional capacity has also been created to enable further growth of its chemical development offering. The 2,000m2, two-storey dedicated…

World Encephalitis Day is the global awareness day for people who have been directly or indirectly affected by encephalitis. Founded by The Encephalitis Society in 2014, it is held on February 22 each year and has reached over 186 million people through media features, events and social media. It is our hope that it will play a leading role in our mission to increase global awareness of encephalitis and therefore saving lives and building better futures. For this year's Lights Camera Action campaign we are lighting up over 90 global landmarks around the world and encouraging supporters to go #Red4WED by wearing red on Monday, 22nd February, and telling people about why it is important more people know about encephalitis. Encephalitis Facts Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain – a dev…

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) today announced a global exclusive license agreement and strategic collaboration to co-develop and commercialize Rigel's R552, a receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) inhibitor, for all indications including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Pursuant to the collaboration, Lilly will also lead all clinical development of brain penetrating RIPK1 inhibitors in central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Rigel's lead RIPK1 inhibitor, R552, has completed Phase 1 clinical trials and will begin Phase 2 clinical trials in 2021 as part of the collaboration.  Rigel also has ongoing pre-clinical activities with its lead CNS penetrant RIPK1 inhibitor candidates. Under the terms of the agreement, Li…

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cognate BioServices, Inc., a premier, cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), for approximately $875 million in cash, subject to customary closing adjustments. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory requirements and customary closing conditions. James C. Foster, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Charles River Laboratories, commented, “Cognate BioServices presents a unique opportunity to expand into a high-growth, value-added sector of the CDMO market and enhance our ability to meet our clients’ needs in emerging areas of scientific innovation. Th…

GSK has announced aspirational targets to make further progress on its gender and ethnic diversity representation in senior leadership. As a result of work to increase female representation in senior roles, GSK has already exceeded its target of 37% of VP-level and above roles being filled by women. The company will now extend this to increase female representation in VP level and above roles to at least 45% by 2025. To drive greater racial and ethnic diversity in senior roles in its two biggest employee populations in the US and UK, new targets have been introduced in these countries, reflecting demographics in these countries. In the US, a new target of at least 30% ethnically diverse leaders by the end of 2025 is now in place to increase representation from the current level of 23%. In…

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has been granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organization (WHO) for active immunisation to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older, including those over 65. The authorisation of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca manufactured by AstraZeneca, and COVISHIELD manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), enables global access to the vaccine during the pandemic. The EUL allows for two doses of the vaccine to be administered at a four to 12-week interval. This regimen was shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 14 days after the second dose. The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) recommended a do…

The University of Glasgow has entered into a research collaboration with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company, that aims to discover and validate the next generation of drug targets for immunological diseases. The £4.6million research collaboration, due to last four years, will work across four diseases – psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibrosis and vasculitis – and will be led by the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation. The collaboration will allow scientists from UofG and Lilly to work together in order to drive the research forward – a move researchers hope will help enable the identification of first-in-class therapeutics for people suffering with these devastating and costly conditions. For instance, rheumatoid arthritis alone a…

The ABPI is delighted to announce that the ABPI Board has unanimously elected Ben Osborn, UK Country Manager, Pfizer, as President-elect of the ABPI. Ben has over twenty years of experience across a wide range of leadership roles at Pfizer, where he began his career in 1998. Prior to his appointment as UK Country Manager in 2018, Ben held the role of Chief Marketing Officer, Pfizer Innovative Health where he led the marketing organisation across Europe, Japan, Korea and ANZ. Ben will formally take over the ABPI Presidency from Haseeb Ahmad on 1 May, following our AGM on 30 April. Until then, Haseeb will remain ABPI President. Further information will follow, and Ben will be available for interview from May 1.

AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) and Caribou Biosciences, Inc., a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing biotechnology company, announced today that they have entered into a collaboration and license agreement for the research and development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapeutics. Although allogeneic, "off-the-shelf" CAR-T cell therapies have shown early promise in some cancer patients, the need for overcoming the rejection of allogeneic CAR-T cells by the host immune system remains a key challenge to their broader development. Employing Caribou's CRISPR genome editing platform to engineer CAR-T cells to withstand host immune attack would enable the development of the next-generation of "off-the-shelf" cellular therapies to benefit a broader patient population.   Under the…

Continued partnership will enhance experience for customers and colleagues and help accelerate cloud innovation on next-generation network BT today announced a new, multi-year agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) to continue to be the company’s network partner in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Under the agreement, BT will work to transform WBA’s networking and enhance the customer and colleague experience with the deployment of next-generation technology.Steve Rempel, senior vice president and international chief information officer, WBA, said, “We chose BT because we share a focus on delivering standout customer experiences. Our digital plans demand full visibility, control and security of applications and data crossing our network so we can join up in-store and online experienc…

FDA BDD acknowledges the importance of GDF-15 testing in identifying eligible cachexic patients with solid tumours to be treated with Pfizer's investigational drug PF-06946860 Unintentional weight loss (cachexia) is a highly prevalent complication of cancer, affecting more than half of all cancer patients worldwide, potentially leading to significant functional impairment and increased risk of death Successful cachexia treatment can potentially contribute to improved cancer treatment worldwide Basel, 8 February 2021 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Device Designation to their Elecsys® GDF-15 assay as a companion diagnostic (CDx) in cancer treatment. This in vitro diagnostic immunoassay is intend…

4D pharma plc (AIM: DDDD), a pharmaceutical company leading the development of Live Biotherapeutic products (LBPs), a novel class of drug derived from the microbiome, today announced a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc. for BAVENCIO® (avelumab), the first and only immunotherapy approved as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. BAVENCIO is co-developed and co-commercialized by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc. Under the collaboration, 4D pharma intends to commence a clinical trial in 2021 to evaluate BAVENCIO in combination with MRx0518 as a first-line maintenance therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that…

Researchers from the UCL Division of Infection & Immunity will lead on two collaborative projects with AstraZeneca. The projects’ long-term aim is to contribute to the development of new cancer treatments. These research collaborations will investigate immune checkpoints which are key biochemical pathways that regulate our body’s immune responses. These are important in a number of conditions, including cancer and autoimmune diseases.  Immune checkpoints carry out the important role of keeping our immune response at normal levels, and therefore not harming healthy cells. However, they can also ‘block’ specialist cells within our immune system from attacking and destroying cancer cells. Checkpoint inhibitor drugs, a type of immunotherapy, have revolutionised cancer treatment in the last…

On 4th February we celebrate World Cancer Day 2021 – a day that unites people, communities and entire countries to raise awareness and take action. Show your support for life-saving research by wearing your Unity Band®, or making a donation. What is World Cancer Day? World Cancer Day is led by the UICC, the Union for International Cancer Control. Cancer Research UK is one of its thousand members from across 172 countries, and we also sit on the board. World Cancer Day is one singular initiative under which the entire world can unite together in the fights against the global cancer epidemic. Cancer is a global challenge. In 2018, 18 million people world-wide were diagnosed with cancer. Today, thanks to research, 2 in 4 people in the UK survive their cancer for 10 years or more. The prospect…

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: JAZZ) and GW Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: GWPH) today announced the companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Jazz to acquire GW for $220.00 per American Depositary Share (ADS), in the form of $200.00 in cash and $20.00 in Jazz ordinary shares, for a total consideration of $7.2 billion, or $6.7 billion net of GW cash. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. Upon close of the transaction, the combined company will be a leader in neuroscience with a global commercial and operational footprint well positioned to maximize the value of its diversified portfolio. GW is a global leader in discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercial…