“U.S. on Track to Approve More Cancer Drugs in 2012,” Reuters

Cancer drug applications at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are rising, with 20 submissions expected this year, as a better understanding of the molecular makeup of the disease leads to new treatments.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “CHO Cells the Top Expression System of Best Selling Biologic Drugs”

“InVitria Wins $1.5 Million to Develop Animal-Free Media for Cell-Based Vaccine Production,” Genetic Engineering News

Ventria Bioscience’s nontherapeutics division InVitria won a two-year, $1.5 million Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to support a collaborative research program focused on using the firm’scell culture supplements to develop animal-free defined cell culture media for the commercial production of cell-basedvaccines. Collaborators in the project include the Institute for Antiviral Research at Utah State University, SoloHill Engineering, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.

If you like this story, please see our stem cell blog titled “Improving Media to Increase Virus Yield in Vaccine Production”

“First Trial of Vaccine to Treat Parkinson’s Disease Begins,” Los Angeles Times

The Austrian company AFFiRiS A.G. of Vienna said this week it has begun the first-ever clinical trials of a vaccine to treat Parkinson’s disease. The study of as many as 32 patients is designed to test the safety and tolerability of the vaccine, called PD01A.

If you like this story, please see our stem cell blog titled “Utilizing Bioreactors to Increase Virus Production in Vaccine Manufacturing”

“Dengue Vaccine in Sight After 70 Years,” Reuters

Sanofi hopes for positive results in September from a key trial among children in Thailand that would set it on course to market a Dengue Vaccine in 2015 which would prevent an estimated 100 million cases of dengue infection each year. Of 20,000 annual deaths, many are of children.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Manufacturing Strategies for Improving Viral Yield and Lowering Production Cost”

“Nearly 1,000 Cancer Drugs in Development in USA,” PharmaTimes

As the doors open for the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, a report reveals that drug makers in the USA are testing 981 medicines and vaccines to fight the disease.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Strategies for Enhancing Media to Improve Antibody Production in CHO Cells”