Booming AVEO inks $555M antibody deal with J&J

With its lead cancer drug forging ahead in Phase III and a major development deal with Astellas helping pay for a burgeoning staff, Cambridge, MA-based AVEO announced a new development pact with Johnson & Johnson this morning. J&J's Centocor unit will fork over $15 million upfront and up to $540 million in milestones for the biotech's internally discovered antibodies targeting the Recepteur d'Origine Nantais receptor, a potential tumor regulator. Half of that upfront...

Sanofi touts promising Ph3 results for blockbuster diabetes program

Sanofi clearly impressed analysts with a new round of promising Phase III results on lixisenatide, its GLP-1 drug for diabetes. Sticking with the headline results for now, investigators reported that the treatment tied with basal insulin significantly lowered blood sugar levels as well as the weight of Type 2 diabetes patients. And that outcome will help set up the diabetes treatment as a potential blockbuster addition to its lineup of late-stage therapeutics. Sanofi in-licensed...

Pregnancy Diabetes Risk Can Be Predicted Up To Seven Years Before

The risk of developing diabetes in pregnancy can be predicted up to seven years before by carefully monitoring known risk factors associated with diabetes and heart risk said researchers in California whose findings are published online today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and...

New Super Sticky Cholesterol In Individuals With High Heart Disease Risk Discovered

MGmin-low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a form of ultra-bad cholesterol that significantly increases the risk of heart disease, has been discovered by researchers at the University of Warwick, England. The scientists, who wrote about their discovery in the journal Diabetes, say their findings may lead to new therapies for elderly patients as well as those with diabetes type...

Earlier And More Accurate Prediction Of Diseases Such As Diabetes, Atherosclerosis And Heart Disease, Presented At European Society Of Human Genetics

Studying the genetic make-up of different varieties of lipids (fatty molecules) in the blood plasma of an individual can lead to a better and earlier prediction of diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and heart disease, two researchers will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Monday 30 May). In the first study,...

Super-Sticky ‘Ultra-Bad’ Cholesterol Revealed In People At High Risk Of Heart Disease

Scientists from the University of Warwick have discovered why a newly found form of cholesterol seems to be 'ultra-bad', leading to increased risk of heart disease. The discovery could lead to new treatments to prevent heart disease particularly in people with type 2 diabetes and the...

High-Fat Diet During Pregnancy Programs Child For Future Diabetes

A high-fat diet during pregnancy may program a woman's baby for future diabetes, even if she herself is not obese or diabetic, says a new University of Illinois study published in the Journal of...

Judge Increases Fresenius Medicare Fraud Penalty

NASHVILLE—A federal judge ruled on May 26 that Fresenius must now pay the U.S. government $82.6 million instead of the original $19.3 million penalty handed down last year for Medicare fraud, according to a report from the Tennessean. ...

Alport Foundation Awards $100K to Study Rare Kidney Disease

PHOENIX—The Alport Syndrome Foundation has awarded $100,000 to Dr. Laura Perin of the Saban Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to examine the use of Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells (AFSCs) as a novel approach to reversing fibrosis in ...

Rigel raises $130M for PhII trial of asthma drug

Pfizer's decision to cut all allergy and respiratory drug development work came as good news for Rigel Pharmaceuticals, even though it meant the end of the two developers' pact for allergic asthma drug candidate R343. The Pfizer bought into Rigel's portfolio of inhaled small molecule syk inhibitors in 2005, and spent the last several years investing the time and money necessary to develop R343 into a mid-stage candidate. Essentially, notes Xconomy, Rigel "basically got handed a big gift...