Wednesday, January 15, 2020 Daily Archives

Horizon says base editing tech could make cell therapies safer

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Horizon Discovery Group says a new DNA editing tech could move multi-gene knockout cell therapies through trials with improved safety profiles. The technology in question – called the Pin Point system – is an editing platform that allows developers to precisely modify DNA at the base-level. The approach differs from CRISPR/Cas9 and other conventional editing techniques that create cuts in genes, which could result in unintended changes and lead to deleterious effects in patients Horizon says. The firm will offer…

January 15, 2020

Amgen thanks BMS-Celgene merger in creating China opportunity

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The opportunistic nature of its partnership with BeiGene threw Amgen into the ever-increasingly attractive China market, management said at JP Morgan. At the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week, Amgen reflected on its 2019 M&A activity and counted itself as a beneficiary of rival Big Biopharma firm Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMS)  Celgene acquisition for $74 billion (€66 billion). From a product perspective, regulatory divestiture demands led Amgen to pick up the global rights to psoriasis drug Otezla (apremilast)…

January 15, 2020

Astrea arises from the Prometic ashes; inks column deal with Thermo

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Astrea Bioseparations will supply prepacked chromatography columns to Thermo Fisher. Formerly known as Prometic Bioseparations, the firm now forms part of KKR life sciences tool platform Gamma Biosciences. Late last year, Bioprocess Insider reported the planned acquisition of Liminal BioSciences’ chromatography and bioprocessing business Prometic Bioseparations by investment firm KKR in a deal worth up to £77 million ($100 million). Now complete, KKR has announced the firm will now be known as Astrea Bioseparations Ltd and is the first company…

January 15, 2020