This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, mergers and acquisitions will continue, Teva offers to buy Mylan, Gene Therapy company Dimension receives round of funding, FDA approves generic version of MS drug Copaxone, GSK recalls 1.7 million flu vaccines, MaxCyte and Johns Hopkins collaborate to advance CAR T-Cell therapies, and Cantrixil gets orphan drug designation.

Cell Culture Events

Webinars:

“A Modern Approach to Mycoplasma Testing,” Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

Time: 15:00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
16:00 CET (Central European Time) 
10:00 EST (Eastern Standard Time) 
07:00 PST (Pacific Standard Time) 

Conferences:

April

• International Society for Extracellular Vesicles – April 23-26, 2015 –Washington DC – http://www.isevmeeting.org/Attending? Don’t miss:

  “From basic research to clinical setting: Adapting methods for EV culturing, enrichment and analysis”

  The aim of this presentation is to provide information on how to optimize experimental conditions for studying cell culture exosomes by a) introducing a Gibco® Exosome-Depleted FBS and b) giving an overview over a direct method for fast, efficient, and selective isolation of exosomes from cell culture supernatant that is compatible with a wide range of downstream applications.

  Thermo Fisher Scientific at Booth #19/20

  Showcasing their new exosome product, Gibco Exosome-Depleted FBS. They will also be have giveaways inlcuding the Gibco Life of Cells Lego Lab.

• Interphex – April 21-23, 2015 – New York, NY – Javits Center – http://www.interphex.com/

May

• TIDES – May 3-6, 2015 – Town and Country Resort, San Diego, CA http://www.ibclifesciences.com/TIDES/overview.xml
• PEGS Boston – May 4-8, 2014 – Seaport World Trade Center – Boston, MA http://www.pegsummit.com/
• Cell Line Development & Engineering – May 18-20, 2015 – 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 and Next Generation Protein Therapeutics Summit – http://www.ibclifesciences.com/ProteinSummit/overview.xml
• 10^th Annual World Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Conference 2015 – May 20-22, 2015 – Business Design Centre, London, UK Scaling up, commercialization and collaboration for market access.
• Cord Blood World Europe Congress 2015 – May 20-21, 2015 – Business Design Centre, London, UK Build deposits, reduce costs, retain quality, decrease volume and increase utilization.
• ISCT – May 27-30, 2015 – Caesars Palace Hotel, Las Vegas, NV http://www.isct2014.com/
• Cell Culture World Congress USA – http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/cell-culture-world-congress-usa/index.stm Americas Antibody Congress http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/cell-culture-world-congress-usa/C52321.stm World Biosimilar Congress http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/cell-culture-world-congress-usa/C52322.stm Downstream Processing World http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/cell-culture-world-congress-usa/C52323.stm May 27-28, 2014 – Marriott San Diego Mission Valley – San Diego, CA

June

• Empowered Antibodies Congress 2015 – June 17 – 18 2015, Barcelona, Spain http://www.informa-ls.com/event/empoweredantibodies15
• Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research – June 24-27, 2015, -Stockholm, Sweden http://www.isscr.org/home/annual-meeting/isscr2015
• BIO International Convention – June 15-18, 2014 – Philadelphia, PA http://convention.bio.org/

August

• The Bioprocessing Summit – August 3-7, 2015 – Westin Copley Place – Boston, MA http://www.bioprocessingsummit.com/

 Headlines

“Drugmakers Reaping Rewards From Deals Signal M&A Boom Will Last,” Bloomberg Business

“Drugmakers will sustain a boom in mergers and acquisitions for some time to come as investors view their dealmaking more positively, according to Adam S. Parker, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “2014 FDA New Drug Approvals – 11 Biologics Receive Approval”

“Teva Offers to Buy Mylan for $40 Billion,” The Wall Street Journal

“Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. launched a $40 billion bid for Mylan NV, bringing into focus the latest battle lines in a fight for heft in the drug industry.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tool – Minimize the Impact of Stress on Pluripotent Stem Cell Health in a Range of Workflows”

“Gene Therapy Upstart Dimension Nabs $65M From “Crossover” Backers,” Xconomy

“The race is on to be the first to market with a Gene Therapy for hemophilia. And one of the entrants just got a big round of funding in what looks like a prelude to an initial public offering.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “A New Model for Continuous Processing in Downstream Purification”

“FDA approves first generic version of Teva MS drug Copaxone,” Reuters

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Thursday the first generic version of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s top-selling multiple sclerosis drug, Copaxone.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Materials and Assay Systems Used for 3D Cell Culture”

“GlaxoSmithKline recalls 1.7 million flu vaccines because they can lose potency over time,” Fox Business

“GlaxoSmithKline is recalling a popular four-in-one flu vaccine distributed throughout the U.S. because its effectiveness can decline over time.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “The Evolution of Vaccine Manufacturing – Past, Current, and Future Trends”

“MaxCyte and Johns Hopkins University Announce Strategic Immuno-Oncology Collaboration to Advance CAR T-cell Therapies,” BusinessWire

“MaxCyte® Inc., the pioneer in cell therapies using scalable, high-performance cell transfection systems, today announces a strategic research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to develop unique Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, which harness patients’ own immune systems to combat cancers.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Closed Systems in Biomanufacturing Offer A Variety of Benefits”

“FDA grants orphan drug designation to Cantrixil for ovarian cancer,” Healio

“The FDA granted orphan drug designation to TRXE-002 for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer, according to a press release from Novogen.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Continuous Downstream Processing – A Tool to Address Key Manufacturing Challenges”