Want to know where flexible electronics could take the medtech space? A good bet might be to look at where NextFlex is putting its money. The San Jose, Calif.–based hybrid electronics manufacturing institute provides funding for promising projects in areas ranging from healthcare to avionics to infrastructure monitoring. NextFlex recently announced $12 million in awards to fund […]
Biotech
Cook, AcuityBio ink deal for lung cancer drug technology
Cook Biotech will collaborate with drug-delivery maker AcuityBio on Acuity’s lead lung cancer product, the companies said today. Acuity’s ABC103 will use Cook Biotech’s proprietary extracellular matrix (ECM) technology. ABC103 is a platform technology designed for localized, sustained drug delivery to prevent post-surgical lung cancer recurrence. It combines approved/ cleared surgical staple-line buttress, drug-eluting polymers and […]
Acorda’s CEO on failure, perseverance and the profound risks of drug development
Dr. Ron Cohen isn’t easily deterred. The physician-turned-executive has spent decades in the biotech industry and weathered a number of setbacks – he learned in his early years at the now-defunct Advanced Tissue Sciences that to succeed, he needed resilience. “I learned that it took hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions to develop […]
Going public, Provention Bio looks to tackle immune-mediated diseases
Shares in Oldwick, N.J.-based Provention Bio began trading today following the close of its $64 million initial public offering last week. The biopharmaceutical company, lead by co-founder & CEO Ashleigh Palmer, is developing a number of products that aim to prevent or stop the spread of immune-mediated diseases, including Lupus, Crohn’s disease and Type I diabetes. Provention Bio’s strategy […]
3D-printed corneas could save millions’ vision
British scientists have 3D printed the first human corneas, yielding a potential fix to the worldwide shortage of corneas for implantation. The Newcastle University researchers created a bio-ink using stem cells from a healthy donor cornea mixed with alginate and collagen. They used a simple, low-cost 3D bio-printer to extrude the bio-ink in concentric circles to form […]
MiMedx top brass resign amid internal accounting investigation
MiMedx CEO Parker H. “Pete” Petit and COO and President William C. “Bill” Taylor have resigned as a board-directed independent investigation continues into accounting practices, Marietta, Ga.–based MiMedx (Nasdaq: MDXG) announced today. Petit and Taylor’s exit comes after recent departures of MiMedx’s CFO and corporate controller and treasurer. In addition to the resignations of top brass, the […]
Amgen swings to a loss in Q4 after $6B hit from tax reform
Shares in Amgen (NSDQ:AMGN) rose slightly today after the biotech missed expectations on Wall Street with its fourth-quarter earnings, but topped EPS estimates for the year ahead. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company swung to a net loss in Q4 thanks to a $6 billion tax charge, posting -$4.26 billion on sales of $5.8 billion in the 3 […]
BioAdvance drops $3.2m on device, drug bets
Early-stage life science fund BioAdvance announced that it has added an array of new companies to its portfolio, investing nearly $3.2 million into companies from the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Two of the firm’s largest investments went to Opsidio, a Bryn Mawr, Penn.-based company developing monoclonal antibodies to treat fibrotic diseases, and New York-based Pillo Health, […]
Aprinoia raises $11m for Alzheimer’s imaging, therapy programs
Aprinoia Therapeutics said today that it has raised $11.1 million in a Series B round, led by KTB Network and DCI Partners. The Taiwan-based biotech plans to use its new funds to advance the preclinical and clinical development of its tau PET imaging tracer and therapy programs for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Get the full story […]
How this biotech plans to go up against big pharma with its eye disease products
Shankar Musunuri has spent time in both the pharmaceutical world and the biotech arena – after 15 years at Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), he went on to launch several biotech start-ups. As co-founder, chairman & chief executive of Ocugen, he is looking to bring eye disease products to the patients that big pharma’s drugs have left out. “There’s so much […]
Shire taps Rani Therapeutics’ oral delivery tech for hemophilia therapy
Shire (NSDQ:SHPG) said this week that it is collaborating with Rani Therapeutics to combine the company’s Rani Pill technology for the delivery of factor VIII therapy in patients with hemophilia A. According to the terms of the deal, Shire has the exclusive option to negotiate a license to develop and commercialize the technology as a delivery mechanism for […]