NEWS New CEO for BioIndustry Association
Galenea and Eisai in neurodegenerative diseases collaboration
US central nervous system diseases specialist Galenea Corporation has entered into a strategic collaboration with Eisai Co Ltd in which Galenea will apply its synaptic transmission platform technology to address synaptic dysfunction in
neurodegenerative diseases. The collaboration’s goals are the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for
neurodegeneration mediated by a disease-specific protein. Galenea’s approach addresses three critical challenges in neuroscience drug discovery: disease mechanism, using MANTRA™, a novel, high throughput screening system for synaptic function; predictive animal models, using integrated behavioural assessment and EEG measures; and clinical biomarkers, using translational EEG measures elicited by behavioural tasks in the clinic. Under the terms of the collaboration, Eisai will make an upfront payment as well as milestone payments throughout the programme.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Galenea is a specialist in the rapidly emerging field of synaptic transmission (ST), the process by which neurons communicate with each other. The company is advancing a novel pro-cognitive programme derived from its MANTRA technology platform and the approach can be extended to address multiple CNS disorders. Eisai Co Ltd is a
research-based human health care company that discovers, develops and markets products globally. The company has a global network of research facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries.
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The UK’s BioIndustry Association (BIA) has appointed Steve Bates as its Chief Executive Officer. Bates has worked both in biotech and the UK government for 15 years. He was Senior Director, External Affairs and Market Access at Genzyme UK and Ireland, during which time he worked on the establishment of the Office for Life Science and was a member of the BIA’s Communications Advisory Committee. Prior to joining the industry he was special advisor to John Reid MP in his time as Home Secretary, Secretary of State for Health, Northern Ireland
Secretary and Defence Secretary. Earlier in his career he led the UK Labour Party’s media team into the general election of 2001
and was formerly a broadcast business journalist at Dow Jones and ITN. He is a graduate of Cambridge University.
BioFocus expands offering with Activiomics proteomics technology
BioFocus and Activiomics have formed a strategic alliance that will allow BioFocus to offer Activiomics’ proteomics services to its customers to improve identification of novel targets for drug discovery and biomarkers for diagnostics. Activiomics’ proprietary technology, TIQUAS (Targeted In-depth QUAntification of cell Signaling), provides
insights into which proteins or pathways have been activated following a cell signaling event, information that is generally not accessible using conventional expression analysis. This has application in a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation and metabolic disease. TIQUAS makes use of mass
spectroscopy-based techniques to detect and quantify thousands of phosphorylation sites from a cell/tissue extract. This provides indications as to which proteins or pathways are activated, since change in phosphorylation status is indicative of a change in protein activity. The output from this platform is analysed using a range of bioinformatics tools.
CoDa Therapeutics increases Series B funding to $40 million
CoDa Therapeutics, Inc has raised an additional $20 million from RusnanoMedInvest (RMI), a subsidiary of RUSNANO, in a second close of its Series B financing round. The transaction is the first investment under a joint investment agreement between RUSNANO and Domain Associates that was reached in March 2012. This brings the total Series B Round to almost $40 million following the first close late last year. All current investors, including Domain Associates, GBS Ventures and BioPacificVentures participated.
Agilent Technologies Inc and Gachon University of Medicine and Science, based in Korea, have formed a collaboration in biomarker discovery using proteomics and glycoproteomics.
sp2 Inter-Active July/August 2012
Some of the financing will be used to expand late-stage clinical trials of the company’s lead product candidate Nexagon for additional indications including diabetic foot ulcers. CoDa recently initiated a multi-centre Phase 2 diabetic foot ulcer trial in the USA and will include additional clinical sites in Russia over the coming months. CoDa is also currently conducting a Phase 2b trial of Nexagon for the treatment of people with venous leg ulcers in the USA, New Zealand and South Africa. Nexagon was highly effective as
The College of Pharmacy at Gachon University is world- renowned for its research in preventing and treating cancer and diabetes.
The laboratory at the College of
a novel wound therapy for venous leg ulcers in an earlier clinical trial. Nexagon operates through gap junction modulation, a therapeutic approach that enables tissue repair through regulating gap junction proteins and intercellular interaction. The company owns numerous issued and pending patents covering this technology. The transaction also involves a licensing of intellectual property rights for Nexagon in Russia. CoDa will receive an upfront product payment and royalties based on sales.
Gachon University acquires access to Agilent proteomics technologies
Pharmacy in Gachon University of Medicine and Science will serve as Agilent’s beta test site for complete glycoproteomics and biomarker discovery workflow solutions.
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