Amorfix suspends blood testing for vCJD

Amorfix Life Sciences (TSX:AMF) has suspended development to commercialize its blood test for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) after two new recently developed versions of the test did not yield positive results. “Although we were able to achieve unprecedented sensitivity with brain prions diluted into blood, we have been unable to detect blood prions with the [...]

Theratechnologies riding wave of optimism

Shares of Theratechnologies (TSX:TH) jumped Friday after an FDA advisory committee on Thursday evening unanimously recommended the FDA green light the company’s tesamorelin drug to treat excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy, based on a favourable benefit-risk profile. The stock, which slumped earlier in the week after the committee’s briefing papers suggested Theratechnologies’ [...]

Tekmira reports on protection against deadly Ebola virus

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TSX:TKM) has published a series of studies in The Lancet demonstrating the ability of an RNA-interference therapeutic using Tekmira’s SNALP lipid nanoparticle delivery technology to protect non-human primates from Ebola virus, a highly contagious and lethal human infectious disease. “These very striking data are the first demonstration that RNAi is efficacious in an [...]

FDA committee clears Theratechnologies’ tesamorelin

An FDA advisory committee recommended by a 16-to-0 unanimous vote that Theratechnologies’ (TSX:TH) tesamorelin drug should be granted marketing approval by the FDA for the treatment of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy, based on a favourable benefit-risk profile. “This recommendation reinforces our belief that the tesamorelin benefit-risk profile seen in clinical trials [...]

YM begins Phase 2 brain metastases trial for nimotuzumab

YM BioSciences (AMEX:YMI; TSX:YM) enrolled its first U.S. patient at the Florida Cancer Institute in a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating its nimotuzumab drug in patients with brain metastases from NSCLC . Last year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control lifted the limitation on the development of nimotuzumab in the [...]

Angiotech excited by Cook stent data for PVD

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals’ (TSX:ANP; NASDAQ:ANPI) licensee Cook Medical presented one-year data at a medical conference that confirms sustained clinical outcomes with Cook’s drug-eluting peripheral stent, Zilver PTX. According to Cook, 86.2% of all patient subgroups treated with the Zilver PTX drug-eluting peripheral stent demonstrated “vessel patency” at 12 months without the requirement for an additional intervention. [...]

Biotech’s new normal is search for efficiency

Coming out of a harrowing financial crisis and recession, the outlines of a “new normal” are starting to emerge in the general economy and biotech industry, Ernst & Young says in its global biotechnology report for 2010, Beyond Borders. On the surface, E&Y says it would appear that the worst is indeed over for biotech. [...]

Intellipharmaceutics advances abuse-deterrent oxycodone

Intellipharmaceutics International (NASDAQ:IPCI; TSX:I) has taken delivery of and fully qualified its primary manufacturing equipment for the manufacture of oxycodone CR, an abuse-deterrent formulation of controlled-release oxycodone hydrochloride. The company also said it has begun making clinical batches of the drug for Phase 1 studies and to establish a clinical program in cooperation with the [...]

QLT hikes size of share buyback

The board of QLT approved an increase in the number of common shares the company (TSX:QLT; NASDAQ:QLTI) may purchase under its normal course issuer bid to 4,700,060, or 10% of the public float, from  2,731,534, or 5% of the outstanding stock on Oct. 28, 2009. The 12-month buyback program ends on Nov. 2, 2010.  The [...]

GeneNews partners to sell ColonSentry in China

GeneNews (TSX:GEN) signed a binding term sheet with GeneDiagnostics, a private clinical research and services company in China, for the non-exclusive rights to market ColonSentry, the world’s first blood-based test to determine a person’s current risk for colorectal cancer. GeneNews expects negotiations will lead to a formal marketing partnership agreement by the end of June. [...]

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