This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pledge $3 billion to fighting disease, FDA approves Sarepta’s Duchenne Drug, ten medicines move closer to EU approval, Allergan to buy liver drug maker Tobira in deal potentially valued at $1.7B, Genentech, BioNtech to partner on mRNA cancer vaccines, Selexis and IAVI expand collaboration on HIV vaccine candidates, and AbbVie, BioArctic launch Parkinson’s collaboration.

Cell Culture Events

Workshops:

GE Healthcare Single-use Symposium – Boston, MA – November 1-2, 2016

When:

Tuesday, November 1, 2016-Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST

Marriott Long Wharf, 96 State St., Boston Massachusetts 02109

Register Here

Bioprocess Insights Webinars

The biopharmaceutical industry has developed into a multi-billion dollar market in just 30 years. Making decisions and setting up strategies in a rapidly changing environment can be challenging. The difference between a good and a great decision can have extensive implications for the future of a company. In this environment, knowledge and experience are what make the difference. Good insights about, for example, technical advancements, process economy implications, and sustainability aspects can help improve the individual decisions and strengthen the overall business strategy.

In this webinar series, four renowned subject matter experts will share their insights into four areas of bioprocessing: upstream, vaccines, downstream, and single-use technology. We will present tangible, recently developed data that can help you in developing modern, cost-efficient, and sustainable bioprocesses.

Don’t miss these on demand webinars – http://www.bioprocessintl.com/sponsored-content/bioprocess-insights-webinars/

Conferences:

October

• Boston Biotech Week – Bioprocessing International Co-Located with Cell Therapy Bioprocessing – October 4-7, 2016 – Boston Convention Center and Exhibition Center – Boston, MA http://www.ibclifesciences.com/BPI/overview.xml

Biotech Week Boston is the destination where passionate scientists and innovators converge to partner and share ground breaking data, research and ideas.  With more than 3000+ global biotech and pharma professionals and 200+ exhibitors in attendance, BWB is your one-stop shop to gain the science, technologies and partners you need to grow your business.

Your $249 BWB 3-Day Pass Provides You Access to:

• 3000+ life science professionals
• 200+ exhibitors
• 125+ scientific posters
• 20+ technology workshops
• 3 innovative keynote presentations
• Fun networking receptions
• BWB Partnering App (register this week to get early access)

For full program details and to register, visit www.biotechweekboston.com.

Get Your $249 BWB Pass with Code DISH50

• World Vaccine Congress Europe – October 10-12, 2016 – Barcelona, Spain http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/world-vaccine-congress-europe/index.stm

• Adoptive T-Cell Therapy Summit Europe 2016 – October 10-11, 2016 – London, UK www.tcellsummit.com

• Bioproduction – October 14-15, 2016 – Dublin, Ireland http://www.informa-ls.com/event/bio-production14

November

• 2^nd Annual Cell & Gene Therapy Congress – November 3-4, 2016 – London, UK – http://www.celltherapy-congress.com/Over 250 delegates representing leading biotech companies, global pharma organisations and internationally renowned academic institutions.Over 20 presentations and case studies focused on the key issues in cell & Gene Therapy development, updates in regulatory pathways, commercialisation, bioprocessing and manufacturing2 interactive streams:Cell & Gene Therapy: Development, Clinical Trials & CommercialisationCell Therapy Bioprocessing and ManufacturingCo-located with the established 5th Annual Cell Culture & Bioprocessing Congress and 3rd Annual Stem Cell CongressFree Pre-Congress WebinarAdvances In Gene Editing Technologies
  Presented by Richard Morgan, Vice President, Immunotherapy at Bluebird Bio. – Register for free today >>
• 5th Annual Cell Culture & Bioprocessing Congress – November 3-4, 2016 – London, UK – http://www.cellculture-congress.com/Over 170 delegates representing leading biotech companies, global pharma organisations and internationally renowned academic institutions50 presentations, case studies and panel discussions focused on the key issues in cell line optimisation, process development and biological production4 interactive streams:Early Cell Line DevelopmentProcess DevelopmentLate Stage Cell Line DevelopmentBiological Production14 pre-scheduled one to one meetings, exhibition and informal networking opportunitiesCo-located with the 3rd Annual Stem Cell Congress and the 2nd Annual Cell & Gene Therapy Congress

If you are attending, don’t miss the  Reception on Thursday evening.

• TIDES Europe – November 14-17, 2016 – Berlin, Germany – http://get.knect365.com/tides-europe/TIDES Europe is the place where oligo and peptide experts go to meet and build successful partnerships to accelerate products from early discovery through late stage development and commercialisation. In 2015 Tides Europe attracted a 40% increase in attendance across the oligo and peptide audience.
• World Immunotherapy Congress 2016 – November 14-16, 2016 – Basel Switzerland http://bit.ly/1rbnrYy

• World Precision Medicine – November 14-15, 2016 – Washington DC

The World Precision Medicine Congress USA is bringing together big pharma, big data, and healthcare providers to discuss the scientific, economic, and policy goals towards producing precise and genomic-based medicines. Partnered with forward-looking industry leaders such as precisionFDA and NantWorks, this event will fast-track our momentum into the future paradigm of healthcare by spurring the important discussions to get us there.

Can you afford to miss this gathering of precision medicine leaders? Pharma, big data, and healthcare providers will be there attending sessions on Gene Therapy, Cell Therapy, personalized medicine, and genomics.

Download the brochure: http://bit.ly/1N3Y0vI

Register to attend: http://bit.ly/1ObpkNV

December

• ASCB – December 3-7, 2016 – San Francisco, CA http://ascb.org/meetings/

• World Stem Cell Summit & RegMed Capital Conference– December 6-9, 2016 – West Palm Beach, Florida http://worldstemcellsummit.com/

• Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics – December 11-15, 2016 – San Diego, CA http://www.ibclifesciences.com/AntibodyEng/overview.xml

• Global Biomanufacturing Summit – December 12-14, 2016 – San Diego, CA http://biomansummit.com/

Headlines:

“Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Pledge $3 Billion to Fighting Disease,” The New York Times

“Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, last year said they would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charitable causes. Now they are putting a large chunk of that money to work.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Synopsis: An Interview with Audrey Jia, former FDA CMC Reviewer for Biological Products”

“Bowing to pressure, FDA approves Sarepta’s Duchenne drug,” Reuters

“Bowing to pressure from patient advocates, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy even though an outside panel of experts and the agency’s own reviewers questioned the drug’s efficacy.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Utilizing UVC LEDs in Biotech and Pharma – Paving the way to better instrument design and better manufacturing methods”

“Ten medicines leap towards EU approval,” PharmaTimes

“Ten new medicines have taken a giant leap closer to European Union approval after having won the backing of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Particulates in Cell Therapy Products – An important issue for commercialization”

“Allergan to buy liver drug maker Tobira in deal potentially valued at $1.7B,” USA Today

“Pharmaceutical manufacturer Allergan said Tuesday it has agreed to buy liver disease drug developer Tobira Therapeutics in a deal valued at up to about $1.7 billion.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Predicting Differentiation and Characterizing Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Non-invasive Multi-analyte Luminex® Assays”

“Genentech, BioNTech to Partner on mRNA Cancer Vaccines,” Genetic Engineering News

“Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, will partner with BioNTech to develop, manufacture, and commercialize novel messenger RNA (mRNA)-based, individualized cancer vaccines, through a collaboration that could generate $310 million-plus for BioNTech.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tool – Novel universal titer boost and enhancer improves CHO cell protein production in small bioreactors”

“Selexis SA and IAVI Expand Collaboration to Advance Multiple HIV Vaccine Candidates Toward Clinical Testing,” BusinessWire

“Selexis SA, a pioneering life sciences company and global leader in mammalian (suspension-adapted CHO-K1) cell line generation, announced today that it has expanded its collaboration with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Under two additional service agreements, making three in total, Selexis will develop high-performance research cell banks to manufacture multiple HIV envelope proteins engineered by scientists at IAVI’s Neutralizing Antibody Center (NAC) at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and other parts of TSRI to help induce the generation of neutralizing antibodies against HIV through vaccination. Financial terms were not disclosed.”

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

“AbbVie, BioArctic Launch Parkinson’s Collaboration,” Genetic Engineering News

“AbbVie will develop and commercialize BioArctic’s portfolio of antibodies directed against α-synuclein for Parkinson’s disease and other potential indications through a collaboration whose value was not disclosed.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Real Time IgG Titer Measurement Enables PAT (Process Analytical Technology) Implementation”