January 2016

While genes may influence our likelihood of being overweight or obese, a new study has found that a physically active lifestyle can blunt the effects of inherited obesity genes.

Animal health products and knowledge services firm Elanco on Tuesday announced it had finalised its acquisition Novartis Animal Health India.

Addex Therapeutics, a leading company pioneering allosteric modulation-based drug discovery and development, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to dipraglurant for the treatment of levodopa-induced dyskinesia associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD-LID). Orphan drug status provides Addex with a number of benefits including reduced development costs and seven years US market exclusivity from launch. Dipraglurant is a novel small molecule inhibitor of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) that has successfully completed Phase II proof-of-concept testing in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suffering from debilitating levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID), an indication that has no approved treatment options. Addex is currently conducting an mGlu5 receptor occupancy clinical trial and is preparing to start a Phase III pivotal trial in PD-LID.

NANOBIOTIX, a late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering novel approaches for the local treatment of cancer, announces the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application on the 30th of December. This allows Nanobiotix to launch its first clinical study in the US for its lead product NBTXR3 in prostate cancer, a new and very significant indication.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Pfizer and Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to evaluate avelumab*, an investigational fully human anti-PD-L1 IgG1 monoclonal antibody, in combination with Syndax’s entinostat, an investigational oral small molecule that targets immune regulatory cells (myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T-cells), in patients with heavily pre-treated, recurrent ovarian cancer. Avelumab is currently under clinical investigation across a broad range of tumor types by the alliance between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer. This is an exclusive agreement between the alliance and Syndax to study the combination of these two investigational agents in ovarian cancer. Syndax will be responsible for conducting the Phase Ib/II clinical trial in ovarian cancer.

NeuroDerm Ltd., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing drugs for CNS disorders, announced the start of patient enrollment in a first efficacy trial of ND0612H, the company’s continuously administered subcutaneous levodopa/carbidopa solution. This treatment is intended to be an alternative to current treatments for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease that require surgical intervention.