The Dish’s Weekly Biotechnology News Wrap Up – September 4, 2015

September 04, 2015 Written by Brandy Sargent

This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, Amgen and Novartis partner on Alzheimer’s, Valeant buys rights to AstraZeneca psoriasis drug, BMS myeloma drug gets Priority Review designation, EMA launches medical literature monitoring service to identify adverse reactions, FDA proposes plan for naming biosimilars, FDA approves Amgen’s cholesterol drug, and FDA approves Sunovion’s epilepsy drug.

Cell Culture Events

Workshops:

 

High Performance Tour 2015

Discover how to improve efficiency and productivity for your bioprocessing workflows during our exclusive High Performance Tour.

Learn how the choice of chromatography media (resins), hardware, and services can dramatically affect your process performance.

Register now to reserve your seat at this special event where you can gain insights in improved process efficiency and productivity.

Coming to these Cities:

  • San Diego, CA – September 15, 2015
  • San Francisco, CA – September 17, 2015

To Register – https://promo.gelifesciences.com/na/K15104/landing.html

Webinars:

Less False Negatives: Quantifying Cell Viability by Simultaneous Triple Staining

Sep 15 2015 | 7:00 AM  PT

Cellular viability is usually determined by measuring the capacity of cells to exclude vital dyes such as 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), or by assessing nuclear morphology with chromatinophilic plasma membrane-permeant dyes, such as Hoechst 33342. However, a fraction of cells that exclude DAPI or exhibit normal nuclear morphology have already lost mitochondrial functions and/or manifest massive activation of apoptotic caspases, and hence are irremediably committed to death. Here, we developed a protocol for the simultaneous detection of plasma membrane integrity (based on DAPI) or nuclear morphology (based on Hoechst 33342), mitochondrial functions (based on the mitochondrial transmembrane potential probe DiOC6(3)) and caspase activation (based on YO-PRO®-3, which can enter cells exclusively upon the caspase-mediated activation of pannexin 1 channels). This method, which allows for the precise quantification of dead, dying and healthy cells, can be implemented on epifluorescence microscopy or flow cytometry platforms and is compatible with a robotized, high-throughput workflow.

Register here – https://www.labroots.com/ms/webinar/id/117/beckman-kepp-sauvat-sep15

Conferences:

September

Roche Custom Biotech will be exhibiting at the Cell Therapy Bioprocessing Annual meeting in Alexandria, VA, September 30-October 2. Visit us in booth #8 to learn more about our range of solutions for Cell Therapy applications, including Liberase enzyme blends for dissociating cells from primary tissues, bio-analytical instrumentation, downstream proteases, and quality control testing kits.

October

  • Bioproduction – October 14-15, 2015 – Dublin, Ireland – http://www.informa-ls.com/event/bio-production14Benchmark technological developments and explore best practices in biomanufacturingThe biopharmaceutical industry is making a capital investment of approximately $8 billion in new facilities in Ireland, most of which has come in the last 10 years, representing close to the biggest wave of investment in new biotech facilities anywhere in the world.Join us at BioProduction 2015 in Dublin this October to see why so much is being invested in this area and to network with leading players within this growing industry!BioProduction 2015: Europe’s leading and largest event for a comprehensive update on all aspects of large scale biological manufacturing. Providing insights on the latest technologies, upstream/downstream processing, process analytics, the implementation of continuous manufacturing, facility design, flexibility facilities and single use systems to reduce inefficiencies during the biomanufacturing process.4 Conferences – 1 Exhibition – 1 Congress
    • Conference 1: Continuous Manufacturing
    • Conference 2: Upstream Processing – Production, Development & Analytics
    • Conference 3: Manufacturing Strategy & Technology
    • Conference 4: Downstream Processing

    For more information on the 2015 event please visit the event website at http://www.informa-ls.com/CQ3531BioproductionCellEL

  • Bioprocessing International – October 26-29, 2015 Hynes Convention Center Boston, MA http://www.ibclifesciences.com/BPI/overview.xml

November

  • Bioproduction Summit 2015 – November 2-3, 2015 – Hilton San Francisco Airport Bayfront – Burlingame, CA Bioproduction Summit 2015 will focus on quintessential topics in Biotech field, such as technology advances in protein production, Cell culture, Bioprocess Development and Novel protein therapeutics. http://www.bioproductionsummit.com
  • World Vaccine Congress – November 3-5, 2015 – Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel – Brussels, Belgium –  For 15 years the World Vaccine Congress in Europe has been the leading event to talk about scientific advances and find new business opportunities within the vaccine sector and this year is no exception. http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/world-vaccine-congress-europe/index.stm
  • FAST: Functional Analysis & Screening Technologies Congress – November 9-11, 2015 – Renaissance Waterfront Hotel – Boston, MA -Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) is pleased to announce the Third Annual FAST: Functional Analysis and Screening Technologies Congress. Now in its third year, the FAST Congress brings you the latest technologies and research in cellular screening. – http://www.fastcongress.com/

Headlines

“Amgen and Novartis partnering on a drug that could prevent Alzheimer’s,” Los Angeles Times

“Thousand Oaks biotech firm Amgen Inc. is partnering with Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis to develop a drug that could slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “New Report Forecasts Sustained Growth in the Pharmaceutical Market through 2020”

“Valeant picks up AstraZeneca psoriasis drug after Amgen exit,” Reuters

“Canada’s Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.TO) (VRX.N) is buying rights to AstraZeneca Plc’s (AZN.L) late-stage experimental psoriasis drug brodalumab after it was dropped by Amgen Inc (AMGN.O) in May.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cancer Drug Market Continues to Grow and is Fueled by Significant R&D Focus and Clinical Pipeline”

“Bristol-Myers Myeloma Drug Accepted for Priority Review,” The Wall Street Journal

“Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Empliciti drug, used to treat multiple myeloma, has been accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for priority review.”

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

“EMA’s Medical Literature Monitoring Service Goes Operational,” Regulatory Focus

“The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Tuesday launched its medical literature monitoring service to help identify suspected adverse reactions and reduce the duplication of such efforts by thousands of pharma and biotech companies.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Culturing hPSCs: From MEFs to Naïve State Cells”

“What to Call Biologic Copycats? FDA Plans Names And Suffixes,” Bloomberg Business

“Cheaper versions of biotechnology drugs in the U.S. will be distinguished from the expensive brand-name medicine they imitate by attaching a suffix to their generic name, the Food and Drug Administration proposed, a plan that may affect how doctors prescribe the treatments.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cord Blood-derived HSCs – The Quest to Overcome Limited Cell Numbers”

“FDA approves Amgen’s cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha,” Reuters

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Amgen Inc’s Repatha drug for patients with hereditary forms of high cholesterol and those with cardiovascular disease.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cell Culture Media Optimization: Making the perfect magical potion”

“FDA approves Marlborough company’s epilepsy drug,” The Boston Globe

“An epilepsy tablet made by Marlborough-based Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. won US approval Friday to be sold as a primary therapy for hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering from partial-onset seizures.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “3D Printing and 3D Bioprinting – Changing the Healthcare Landscape”

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