January 2016

A team of US researchers has found that e-cigarettes are toxic and can directly attack lung cells, weakening the immune system and boosting bacterial virulence.

Researchers at a US university have found the brains of obese children function differently from those children of healthy weight, and suggest that diet and exercise may not be enough to restore their normal weight.

People who kicked the butt as long as 15 years ago are still at high risk for lung cancer and should be screened, warn researchers.

Thanks to stem cell therapy a 24-year-old engineering student who was crippled due to Multiple Sclerosis has started to walk again.

AstraZeneca together with GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson has partnered with three world-class universities, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and University College London (UCL), to create the Apollo Therapeutics Fund. This pioneering new consortium aims to convert outstanding academic science from the three universities into innovative medicines for a broad range of diseases.

Fate Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapeutics for cancer and immune disorders, announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Company's investigational new drug (IND) application for ProTmune™, a programmed cellular immunotherapy consisting of donor-sourced mobilized peripheral blood cells which have been functionally modulated using two small molecules. The IND is now active and Fate Therapeutics plans to initiate a multi-center, randomized, controlled Phase 1/2 clinical trial in adult patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing mobilized peripheral blood (mPB) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in mid-2016.

Polyganics, a privately held medical technology company focused on the commercialization of proprietary products and technologies for peripheral nerve repair, neurosurgery, general surgery, as well as ear, nose & throat surgery,  announced it has received FDA 510(k) clearance for NEUROCAP, an innovative device designed to reduce painful neuroma formation and thereby facilitate tissue repair and regeneration.

Sandoz, a Novartis company and the global leader in biosimilars, announced  that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd for the distribution and promotion of its biosimilar rituximab - a monoclonal antibody, in Japan.