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May 02, 2017

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Today's Rundown

  1. Novartis licenses CAR-T patents from bluebird, Celyad

  2. Magenta gains $50M Series B, Novartis candidate and new partnership

  3. Pfizer cuts neuroscience meds from pipeline

  4. [Sponsored] Mitotech’s SkQ1 targets mtROS, and a long list of age-related diseases

  5. Sunesis slumps after pulling plug on leukemia drug vosaroxin in Europe

  6. Menichella, fresh from helping Bamboo to Pfizer buyout, given dealmaking remit at helm of CureVac’s U.S. outpost

  7. Can aging muscle be regenerated? New research suggests a first step

  8. J&J hit with $20M verdict in Philadelphia vaginal mesh case

  9. AZ nabs bladder cancer OK—its first—for checkpoint med Imfinzi. Can lung cancer nod follow?

Featured Story

Novartis licenses CAR-T patents from bluebird, Celyad

Novartis has licensed CAR-T patents from bluebird bio and Celyad. The agreements give Novartis the nonexclusive right to use intellectual property related to bluebird’s lentiviral vector platform and Celyad’s off-the-shelf CAR-T technology.

Top Stories

Magenta gains $50M Series B, Novartis candidate and new partnership

It was only six months ago, in a unique matchup, that venture capital firms Atlas and Third Rock came together in a $48.5 million Series A to create and launch Magenta Therapeutics; now, the upstart has added more cash, a new drug and a key collab for its Series B as it looks to waste no time boosting its clinical work.

Pfizer cuts neuroscience meds from pipeline

Alongside its first-quarter financials today, Pfizer also sneaked in details of its “discontinued projects,” which includes meds from its CV and metabolism pipeline and from its neuroscience unit.

[Sponsored] Mitotech’s SkQ1 targets mtROS, and a long list of age-related diseases

It’s a critical tradeoff for life. Our bodies use sugar and fat from the food we consume to produce energy in our cells’ mitochondria, the internal powerhouses that give us the energy we need for all our vital functions.

Sunesis slumps after pulling plug on leukemia drug vosaroxin in Europe

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals has been forced to concede defeat in its bid to bring vosaroxin to the E.U. market for acute myeloid leukemia, in a near carbon copy of what happened with the FDA two years ago.

Menichella, fresh from helping Bamboo to Pfizer buyout, given dealmaking remit at helm of CureVac’s U.S. outpost

CureVac has hired Daniel Menichella as CEO of its Boston-based subsidiary. The appointment gives the mRNA specialist and Moderna rival a dealmaker last seen helping Bamboo Therapeutics to a $645 million (€591 million) takeover by Pfizer.

Can aging muscle be regenerated? New research suggests a first step

Scientists at Sanford Burnham have identified the mechanism that causes muscle cells to stop regenerating as people age. This knowledge could lead to methods to slow—but not stop—the decline in muscle mass and function as people get older.

J&J hit with $20M verdict in Philadelphia vaginal mesh case

A jury in Philadelphia has awarded $20 million in damages to a plaintiff who claimed that her pelvic mesh implant, made by J&J’s Ethicon unit, failed and caused her injury.

AZ nabs bladder cancer OK—its first—for checkpoint med Imfinzi. Can lung cancer nod follow?

AstraZeneca is officially on the board with checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi, which nabbed its first FDA approval Monday. The British pharma giant picked up an accelerated green light in urothelial carcinoma, and with it, it becomes the third Big Pharma player to enter the advanced bladder cancer space with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor.

News of Note

Stealth BioTherapeutics has revealed the start of its phase 1/2 study of SBT-20, a drug that works by restoring the properties of dysfunctional mitochondria, for early stage Huntington's disease. Release

Altor BioScience Corporation has been given an FDA "Fast Track" tag for its IL-15 agonist complex, ALT-803, in combo with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, for patients with bladder cancer. Statement

Concert Pharmaceuticals has kick-started a phase 2a test for CTP-543 in alopecia areata, a disorder in which the immune system attacks hair follicles and can lead to complete hair loss, with topline data expected in around a year. Release

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[Whitepaper] Immuno-Oncology and the Role of Biomarkers, Companion and Complementary Diagnostics

The recent evolution of immunotherapies and their potential applications have greatly impacted patients’ options for effective oncology treatments. These advances have been powered in part by the use of biomarkers, companion diagnostics (CDx) and complementary diagnostics. Read the white paper.

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