Business

Sino Biological has announced a successful listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange subsidiary ChiNext. A total of 17 million shares were issued for a total of ¥4.98 billion (US$770 million) raised during this initial public offering.   Sino Biological says the listing is an important milestone in its strategic plan for growth. It signifies a new starting point for the company’s future […]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded approximately $53 million in annual funding over the next five years to ten research organisations in a continued effort to find a cure for HIV.   The new awards for the Martin Delaney Collaboratories for HIV Cure Research programme expand the initiative’s 2016 renewal from six institutions to ten. One of the new grants […]

Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: An expert’s view by John Yoshi Shyu, Ph.D. Corning Life Sciences. Most vaccines are manufactured using technology devised fifty or more years ago, in manufacturing plants that are sometimes even older. The vaccine production process is continually refreshed by new tools and technologies, and that fast-paced innovation gives […]

DDW Editor Lu Rahman selects three Canadian start-ups worth watching: AbCellera Biologics, BlueRock Therapeutics and Deep Genomics. AbCellera Biologics AbCellera Biologics was founded in 2012 as a spin out from the University of British Colombia. The company searches, decodes, and analyses natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be developed into drugs to prevent […]

Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: By Christopher Doyle, PhD, Director, IBC Services at WCG The Covid-19 pandemic spawned a flurry of research that culminated in the development of several vaccines that express viral proteins from recombinant or synthetic genetic material. The success of these new vaccines thrust the field of human gene transfer […]

Following the announcement by Samsung Biologics that it planned to add mRNA vaccine drug substance manufacturing services to its offering, DDW’s Megan Thomas spoke to Seahee Kim about what this means for both business and drug development.   MT: As a CDMO, Samsung Biologics can offer both development and manufacturing services. What are the advantages of […]

RareCan, a new company accelerating research into rare cancers, has appointed Dr Anita Cooper as Non-Executive Director. The appointment is said to strengthen the scientific and pharmaceutical experience of RareCan’s board in support of the company’s planned commercial growth. With over 30 years’ global business experience, Cooper has worked across diverse functions, skill levels and […]

Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: John Macdonald is Vice President, Venture & Financial Alliances at ICON. He examines the European biotech sector – its expertise and opportunities and potential for growth. By harnessing biological processes on a cellular and biomolecular level, biotech is benefitting industries as varied as agriculture and chemical production. Perhaps […]

Botanical Holdings was founded in early 2020 with a focus on investing within the legal cannabis sector. There is now a substantial body of evidence to support the effectiveness of cannabis-based medicines in treating a range of conditions from epilepsy to chronic pain. More recently, attention has also turned to the potential of certain psychedelic […]

A survey of 75 pharmaceutical, life sciences and medtech businesses indicates R&D spending is being maintained and is set to rise in 2021, despite Brexit and the impact of Covid-19. The survey included SMEs in these sectors in the UK and was conducted by accountancy group MHA. This is positive news for the recently released […]

Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: Lu Rahman looks at the growing role of real world evidence and its benefits in the fight against Covid-19. Real world evidence (RWE)  is nothing new. While clinical trials have a significant part to play  – and indeed remain the ultimate standard for advancing new drugs to markets […]

Despite its competitive nature, the drug discovery sector has embraced collaboration successfully, says Benedict Cross, Chief Technology Officer at Phoremost. The drug discovery and biotechnology industry is historically a competitive arena, both intellectually and commercially, where the race to the finish line can be characterised by unseemly acts of avaricious behaviour. And yet over the […]

Drug discovery is complex and the expertise it requires is vast. Matthew A. Clark, Chief Executive Officer, X-Chem, talks to Lu Rahman about the company’s experience of collaboration and how it enables innovation, flexibility and problem-solving. Drug discovery is the most interdisciplinary of all scientific endeavours, says Clark. “To successfully discover and develop life-improving medicines, […]

By Dr Craig R. Rayner, FRCP Edin, PharmD, MBA, President, Integrated Drug Development at Certara Right at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical researchers began questioning whether there were any existing, on-market drugs that might prove effective against SARS-CoV-2. They wanted to offer healthcare professionals and patients some known therapeutic options while researchers quickly […]

Shelley McLendon, VP of Project Management, Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at ICON, outlines best practices that can keep trials running at optimal speed and efficiency, and the benefits of adopting a strategic partnership. The world responded to the Covid-19 crisis at unprecedented speed — including vaccine development. During a pandemic, timing is critical as the virus […]

Andrew Aldridge, Partner at  Deepbridge Capital explains why life science sector has shot up the UK investment agenda as vaccinations are rolled out. The past twelve months have showcased the importance of medical developments like never before. Innovation in the life sciences sector has been headline news around the globe and all aspects of the healthcare system have been under the […]