Moderna Flu Vax Prompts Response to More Common Strains, But Misses in Influenza B

Moderna Flu Vax Prompts Response to More Common Strains, But Misses in Influenza B

A Moderna messenger RNA vaccine for influenza now has preliminary data from a pivotal study showing the shot prompted a strong immune response to the more common strains of the virus but fell short against less common strains.
The results reported Thursday are from one of two pivotal studies for the Moderna vaccine, mRNA-1010, which is assessing the shot for safety and immune response. A separate Phase 3 study is evaluating the shot for efficacy. Results from that study could come as early as next month. Moderna’s vaccine encodes hemagglutinin, a protein on the surface of the influenza virus that is also…

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Cell Therapy Biotech Talaris Ends Two Kidney Transplant Trials, Restructures

Cell Therapy Biotech Talaris Ends Two Kidney Transplant Trials, Restructures

Talaris Therapeutics aimed to transform solid organ transplants with a cell therapy that replaces anti-rejection drugs patients need for the rest of their lives. But after clinical trial setbacks, the biotech has decided to end two kidney transplant studies. Although a separate test of its experimental therapy is continuing in a rare autoimmune condition, Talaris has commenced a restructuring plan that it said could culminate in a merger or sale of the company.
The restructuring announced Thursday will lead to the layoff of about one-third of Talaris’s staff. As of the end of the third quarter of 2022, the Louisville, Kentucky-based biotech…

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Digital as the Differentiator for Biopharma and Medtech

Digital as the Differentiator for Biopharma and Medtech

With the Inflation Reduction Act now on the books, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. That, combined with other headwinds such as increased competition from me-too drugs, and ever-present pricing pressure from payers, means that pharma players now more than ever need a new and powerful tool to differentiate their products. We believe the next decade of transformation is digital.
Learning from the auto industry Almost every industry has had to confront a fundamental existential question: What is our product? Consider the automotive industry, which once was largely about hardware…

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Blood Biotech Grifols Cuts Deep in the U.S. to Find €400M in Savings

Blood Biotech Grifols Cuts Deep in the U.S. to Find €400M in Savings

Grifols, a company that turns blood plasma into therapies for immunological disorders and other conditions, is laying off about 2,000 U.S. workers as part of a corporate restructuring projected to yield up to €400 million in annual cost savings, the biotech announced Wednesday.
The layoffs represent about 8% of the Barcelona-based company’s global workforce, but they will happen mainly in its U.S. plasma operations. That’s notable because as a company that relies on plasma, the U.S. is vital to its business. The starting point for Grifols’s therapies is blood plasma. Key to its drug-making process is fractionation, in which the protein components…

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Adverse Survival Signal Leads G1 to Stop Pivotal Test in Colorectal Cancer

Adverse Survival Signal Leads G1 to Stop Pivotal Test in Colorectal Cancer

G1 Therapeutics’ approach to cancer does not kill tumors. Instead, the biotech’s drug, trilaciclib, protects bone marrow from the damaging effects of chemotherapy, reducing the duration and severity of the problems that can limit the use of this cancer treatment. Since trilaciclib’s initial approval insmall cell lung cancer, G1 has pursued more clinical trials that could support expanding the drug to other cancers. Colorectal cancer will no longer be one of them.
On Monday, G1 reported preliminary data showing that the placebo group outperformed the trilaciclib arm in helping patients live longer. G1 said it has decided to stop the colorectal cancer…

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