Novo is best known for the insulins and other diabetes medicines its scientists spent years developing and refining. Deals for drugs invented outside its laboratories are relatively rare, as are agreements focused on diseases other than the metabolic condition.
But Novo has shown an interest in expanding its research into blood disease and cardiovascular treatments, mounting a failed bid for the Belgian drugmaker Ablynx in 2018 and, more recently, acquiring Corvidia Therapeutics and its antibody drug for heart disease.
The deal for Prothena’s PRX004, though a bit further afield, appears to fit into that pattern, giving Novo a mid-stage therapy for a disease that’s receiving more and more attention from drugmakers. READ MORE
By Ned Pagliarulo
Source: biopharmadive.com
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to MedTrace for their method of diagnosing the human heart via 15O-water PET. The patented method is the foundation of the company’s software aQuant, currently under development. Hendrik “Hans” Harms, PhD and Senior Scientist at MedTrace, and Jens Soerensen, Professor and Clinical Advisor to MedTrace, are the originators of the method.
Teresa Graham, currently head of global product strategy for Roche pharma, will become the division’s new CEO next month, Roche said Thursday. Simultaneously, Roche is elevating Levi Garraway, chief medical officer, to the executive committee.
Fierce Pharma has obtained internal documents and video of a town hall meeting conducted this week describing what J&J called a “comprehensive review” of its portfolio. Moving forward, J&J plans to operate its vaccines and infectious diseases outfits as one group, the executives explained.