This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, new Hepatitis C drugs hold promise, Bayer says drug extends lives of liver cancer patients, Biogen to spin off hemophilia drug business, flu shots protect babies, Amgen’s Blincyto gets speedy FDA review for pediatric patients, Pfizer approaches Medivation about takeover, and Biogen and AbbVie’s MS drug gets recommendation for approval in EU.

Cell Culture Events

Webinars:

Bioprocess Insights Webinar Series:

Unlocking the Potential for Efficiency in Downstream Bioprocesses

Wed, May 18, 2016 – Time:11:00 AM EDT – Duration:30 minutes

Madhu Raghunathan will walk you through several innovative strategies for achieving increased efficiency in buffer handling, chromatography unit operations, and downstream processing in general.
Register Now.

Single-Use Technology and Sustainability: Quantifying the Environmental Impact

Wed, June 1, 2016 – Time:11:00 AM EDT – Duration:30 minutes

Bill Flanagan will talk about sustainability and how this relates to single-use technologies in biomanufacturing operations. He will present new data on the implications of a single-use strategy from a sustainability perspective.
Register Now.

Conferences:

May

TIDES – May 9-12, 2016 – Long Beach, CA

http://www.ibclifesciences.com/TIDES/overview.xml

World Stem Cells Regenerative Medicine Conference – May 18-20, 2016 – London, UK http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/stem-cells/index.stm

World Cord Blood Conference – May 18-19, 2016 – London, UK

http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/world-cord-blood-congress-europe/index.stm

World Precision Medicine – May 18-19, 2016 – London, UK

http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/world-precision-medicine-congress/index.stm

ISCT – May 25-28, 2016 – Singapore

http://www.celltherapysociety.org/?page=ISCT2016

Cell Culture World Congress USA – May 19-20, 2016 – Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa – San Diego, CA

http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/cell-culture-world-congress-usa/index.stm

June

BIO International Convention – June 6-9, 2016 – San Francisco, CA

http://convention.bio.org/

Cell Line Development & Engineering – June 13-15, 2016 – Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco, CA

http://www.ibclifesciences.com/CellLine/overview.xml

Co-located with

Bioconjugates: From Targets to Therapeutics – http://www.ibclifesciences.com/Bioconjugates/overview.xml

Next Generation Protein Therapeutics Summit – http://www.ibclifesciences.com/ProteinSummit/overview.xml

Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research – June 22-25, 2016, San Francisco, CA

http://www.isscr.org/home/annual-meeting/san-francisco-2016

Progress in Continuous Biomanufacturing – June 27-28, 2016 – Robinson College, Cambridge, UK

The conference is enhanced by the participation of several leading industrial technologists, scientific, vendors and also leading academics from Europe and USA. They have come forward to share their experience and knowledge to provide a better understanding of the current technologies and their application in continuous biomanufacturing. There is also a plenary lecture by a distinguished professor in the field of bioprocessing, and you will also benefit from access to unpublished data. This meeting will address several advancements and their successful application with data in the Technology both Upstream and downstream and also on Initiatives to process developments and project to the future direction of the industry. By joining with us you can benefit from the current state of-the-art advancements in continuous manufacturing and also learn about the successful organisations that are developing and applying these methods in-house.

http://www.subramanian.org.uk/

Viral Safety and Raw Materials – June 2016, Vienna, Austria

http://www.informa-ls.com/event/empoweredantibodies15

Headlines

“Hepatitis C Deaths in U.S. Rose in 2014, but New Drugs Hold Promise,” The New York Times

“Deaths from hepatitis C in the United States continued climbing in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday, but experts hope the trend will reverse over the next few years as more people with the virus receive highly effective new treatments.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “The CRISPR/Cas9 System and its Applications”

“Bayer says its drug extends lives of liver cancer patients,” Reuters

“Bayer AG said on Thursday its Regorafenib cancer treatment drug helped extend the lives of liver cancer sufferers according to the results of a Phase III clinical trial.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Poster: Purpose-designed Protein A resins for Improved Downstream Process and Cost Efficiency in MAb purification”

“Biogen to spin off hemophilia drug business into a public company,” Reuters

“Biogen Inc plans to spin off its hemophilia drug business as a publicly traded company, leaving the drugmaker to focus on developing drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, the company said on Tuesday.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tool – New ACF Medium to Expand and Differentiate Human Hematopoietic Cells into Erythroid Cells”

“Flu Shots Protect Babies, Too,” The New York Times

“Here’s one more reason pregnant women should get a flu shot: It not only protects mothers, but a large study suggests it prevents flu in the infant, too”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “2015 FDA New Drug Approvals – 13 Biologics Receive Approval”

“Amgen’s Blincyto gets speedy US review for paediatric patients,” PharmaTimes

“US regulators have agreed to undertake a speedy review of Amgen’s cancer immunotherapy Blincyto for use in younger patients with a rare form leukaemia.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tool – Producing 3D Tissue Models of the Airway Epithelium with PneumaCult™”

“Exclusive: Pfizer approaches Medivation about potential takeover – sources,” Reuters

“Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) has approached U.S. cancer drug maker Medivation Inc (MDVN.O) to express interest in an acquisition, raising the possibility of a bid rivaling a $9.3 billion offer by Sanofi SA (SASY.PA), people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tools – BrainPhys™: A New Way to Culture Neurons”

“Biogen, AbbVie multiple sclerosis drug wins EU green light,” Reuters

“A once-monthly injection for multiple sclerosis from Biogen and AbbVie has been recommended for approval by European regulators, paving the way for its launch in the coming months.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Enabling High Density Cell Banking using a Single-Use, Closed-System”