This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, Novartis heart drug gets U.K. panel banking, flu shot timing, Novartis reportedly considering selling stake in Roche, Coalition demands lower prescription drug costs, NanoCor Therapeutics gets ok from FDA to test Gene Therapy for treatment of congestive heart failure, Novartis gets FDA breakthrough status for therapy to treat fever syndromes, and GSK and Zymeworks launch second antibody collaboration.

Cell Culture Events

Webinars:

Bioprocess Insights Webinar Series:

Vaccine Manufacturing with Single-Use Technology: An Evaluation of Process Economy

Wed, May 4, 2016 – Time:11:00 AM EDT – Duration:30 minutes

Dr. Mats Lundgren will share his insights on how to improve process economy and enhance end-product quality through the implementation of single-use technologies and novel microcarrier formats.
Register Now.

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

“Novartis Heart Drug Gets Endorsed by NICE, But Not for Everyone,” Bloomberg

“A Novartis AG heart drug that’s struggled to gain acceptance in the U.S. won the backing of a U.K. panel as a cost-effective treatment, even without a price discount.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Airway Modeling using Advanced 3D Systems for Epithelial Cell Culture”

“Get Your Flu Shot in the Morning,” The New York Times

“There may be a simple and cost-free way to improve the effectiveness of the flu vaccine: Get vaccinated in the morning instead of the afternoon.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Gene Therapy Strengthened by Recent Successes”

“Novartis to sell 33 percent stake in Roche?,” PharmaTimes

“Novartis is reportedly considering selling off its stake in Roche worth nearly $14 billion, though sources say that no deal is yet imminent.”

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”

“Hospitals, insurers, seniors demand action to lower prescription-drug costs,” The Washington Post

“A broad coalition including health-care providers, insurers and seniors will propose major changes Monday designed to rein in prescription-drug costs, including a shorter exclusivity period for biotech medications and a requirement that manufacturers disclose more information about pricing.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Upstream Continuous Process – Perfusion Culture”

“Chapel Hill biotech gets FDA green light to test heart disease therapy,” Triangle Business Journal

“A Chapel Hill biotech heard good news from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday. The regulatory body accepted an investigational new drug (IND) application from NanoCor Therapeutics, Inc. relating to Carfostin, an experimental cardiac Gene Therapy in development for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF).”

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

“Novartis’ Ilaris receives FDA breakthrough status to treat fever syndromes,” Reuters

“Novartis AG said on Wednesday it received three breakthrough therapy designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its drug Ilaris to treat rare types of periodic fever syndromes.”

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

“GSK, Zymeworks Launch Up-to-$908M Second Antibody Collaboration,” Genetic Engineering News

“GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to develop and commercialize novel bispecific antibodies enabled through Zymeworks’ Azymetric™ drug discovery platform, in a deal that could generate up to $908 million-plus for Zymeworks.”

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