Biotherapeutics

Matt Hill, Founder and CEO of Elegen writes about the importance of innovation in DNA synthesis to address critical bottlenecks in biotherapy development. With advanced technology and a growing understanding of the underlying biology, biotherapy development has evolved. Since 2010, investments in the field have grown and the number of therapies launched globally has tripled. […]

Paul Denslow, CEO, Intus Bio, discusses how a new approach to tracking gut bacteria can revolutionse our understanding of the microbiome and bring about new discoveries for therapeutics.   It’s a long-held doctrine that there’s no effective method to track the microbiome during drug research and development. This doctrine no longer holds.  For many years, an […]

Bloom Science, a clinical-stage, central nervous system (CNS) company focused on discovering and developing breakthrough therapeutics that target the Gut-Brain Axis, has completed enrolment in all four cohorts of healthy adult participants as part of its Phase I clinical trial.   Bloom is developing BL-001 for Dravet syndrome, a rare paediatric epilepsy that significantly impacts […]

Bloom Science has completed enrolment of healthy adult participants as part of its Phase I clinical trial into BL-001 for Dravet syndrome, a rare paediatric epilepsy. BL-001 is an orally administered Live Biotherapeutic Product reverse translated from the positive clinical outcomes associated with the Ketogenic Diet in treating refractory epilepsy. The Phase I study of […]

PureTech Health, a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company, will advance therapeutic candidate LYT-300 (oral allopregnanolone) for the potential treatment of anxiety disorders and postpartum depression (PPD).    A social anxiety clinical trial in healthy volunteers is expected to begin in the first half of 2023, with results anticipated by the end of 2023; a clinical trial in women […]

A female-led start-up developing a live biotherapeutic product to address infant gut needs, has raised £1.3M ($1.5M) in equity and grant funding.  BoobyBiome, founded by scientists Dr Lydia Mapstone, Dr Sioned Jones and Tara O’Driscoll, aims to develop a novel product for babies who do not have access to the microbiome in breast milk.  Working […]

Pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) SGS Quay Pharma has been recognised with a Queen’s Award in the UK for the strength of its export sales.   The CDMO won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade and was recognised for the strength of its export sales which since 2010 have […]

PerkinElmer has announced two ready-to-use HTRF and AlphaLISA no-wash assay kits designed to quickly and easily detect and quantify CHO HCP impurities during biopharmaceutical manufacturing.   Recombinant therapeutic proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies, some vaccines and other biologics, must be free of residual host cell protein (HCP) impurities to prevent immunogenicity or reduced potency, stability or […]

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Symphogen are continuing their collaboration to provide biopharmaceutical discovery and development laboratories with innovative tools and streamlined workflows for efficient characterisation of complex therapeutic proteins.   Since the collaboration began in 2018, Symphogen has adopted instruments and software to improve data quality and processes to develop, test and routinely implement platform workflows […]

Nuclera, a UK-based biotech company, has opened a US subsidiary located in Boston, MA. This is designed to push Nuclera’s eProtein desktop bioprinter for biotherapeutics.  Dr Michael Chen, CEO and cofounder of Nuclera, said: “This site opening just outside one of the most important biotech markets is a big step towards Nuclera’s goal to make proteins accessible through desktop bioprinting. Our […]

Revelar Biotherapeutics and Twist Bioscience have announced that RBT-0813 binds to and neutralises the Omicron and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 in live virus studies.   What is RBT-0813?  RBT-0813 is a bispecific antibody discovered by Twist Biopharma and licensed to Revelar Biotherapeutics that targets epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Revelar has continued to advance preclinical development of RBT-0813 to submit an Investigational […]

4D Pharma has announced positive topline results from Part A of its Phase I/II clinical trial of MRx-4DP0004, an orally-delivered single strain Live Biotherapeutic being developed for the treatment of asthma.  Part A  The Phase I/II trial is a multi-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in patients with partly controlled asthma taking long-term medication. The primary endpoint […]

XORTX Therapeutics has chosen Altasciences to conduct a pharmacokinetic bridging study in support of the XRx-008 programme for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), and XRx-101 for acute kidney injury associated with Covid-19.   Context   XORTX’s formulations of xanthine oxidase inhibitors are aimed at reducing uric acid levels in order to slow the progression of the genetic disorder ADPKD, and […]

Over the last decade, groundbreaking chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies have become a well-established cancer treatment modality. Clinical research continues to demonstrate the encouraging potential this approach holds for treating a wide array of conditions while increasing safety, tolerability, and efficiency in manufacturing. Atara Biotherapeutics, a California-based biotechnology company, seeks to harness the immune […]

Northwest Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company developing DCVax personalised immune therapies for solid tumour cancers in the United States, has announced the closing of a $15 million financing.  The company plans to use the funding to help accelerate its activities related to its brain cancer programme.    The financing is in the form of a 22-month loan which requires no payments for eight […]

Twist Bioscience has launched Revelar Biotherapeutics to develop and commercialise an antibody that neutralises all known variants of concern of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in preclinical studies.   In addition, Revelar will have the ability to leverage the antibody discovery and optimisation platform of Twist Biopharma to license additional antibodies for up to five targets over the next four years.  Emily Leproust, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience, said: […]