Standard newborn screening can detect dozens of inherited diseases, but genomics technology enables testing for hundreds of them. A North Carolina program evaluating the feasibility of bringing genomics to newborn screening is expanding with an initial goal of testing 5,000 babies in the next year.

Allogeneic cell therapy hasn’t caught up to autologous cell therapy yet, and the disappointing data so far has soured the entire allogeneic field for at least one venture capitalist. The cell therapy debate was one of the topics covered during a panel discussion at the Biopharm America conference.

Imugene gains global rights to Precision BioSciences’ most advanced program, an allogeneic cell therapy for advanced cases of blood cancer. Precision will now focus on in vivo gene editing therapies, some of which is partnered with Novartis and Eli Lilly.

Enzo BioChem’s sale of its clinical lab business to Labcorp is the culmination of a monthslong strategic review. Meanwhile, diagnostics and lab testing giant Labcorp is in the middle of its own corporate shakeup as it readies its clinical trials business for a spinoff as a standalone, publicly traded company.

Moderna is partnering with Life Edit, a subsidiary of ElevateBio that offers a suite of gene-editing technologies. The deal brings together the capabilities of both companies, which aim to develop in vivo gene-editing therapies.Mod

G1 Therapeutics said its drug met the main goal of a Phase 3 study in colorectal cancer, but the preliminary results also show measures of survival are better in the placebo arm. The company is stopping the colorectal cancer study.

Lusaris Therapeutics launched with $60 million for clinical development of a psychedelic depression drug it claims will be easier to dose and fast-acting. The company was formed and incubated by RA Capital Management, which led the startup’s Series A round of financing.

According to the motion, more than one third of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s abortion patients between July 1 and September 30, 2022 came from out of state, totalling 1,317 people. In the same time period last year, just 322 patients came from out of state for abortions.

A Fennec Pharmaceuticals drug that prevents hearing loss in children receiving cancer treatment is now approved. The regulatory decision comes more than two years later than expected, but the company now claims its drug, Pedmark, is the first and only FDA-approved therapy for reducing the risk of chemotherapy-induced hearing loss in pediatric cancer patients.

Laboratory testing and clinical trial services giant LabCorp plans to spin off its drug development business as an independent, publicly traded company. It’s the latest in a string of corporate moves for the life sciences sector as companies look to streamline operations in order to focus on particular areas of growth.

Novartis is paying Precision Bio $75 million up front to begin a partnership aiming to develop in vivo gene-editing therapies for serious genetic blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease. One of the goals of the alliance is to make genetic medicines more globally accessible.

A veteran of GE Healthcare, Joe Gasque talks about how he's growing the company's niche position in the high-paced aesthetics industry, offering services to surgeons, practitioners, medical device and injectables manufacturers.

Becton Dickinson is getting into pharmacies with a more than $1.5 billion acquisition of Parata Systems, maker of robotics technologies that automate pharmacy tasks. The deal comes two months after BD completed the spinoff of its diabetes business as a separate, publicly traded company.

Chimerix is selling global rights to smallpox drug Tembexa, the biotech’s only FDA-approved product, as a way to fund clinical development of a therapy in pivotal testing for a rare type of brain cancer. The deal marks Chimerix’s nearly complete departure from the antiviral work that defined the company for most of its history.

While Covid-19 has had a significant impact on drug spending, IQVIA projects that its effect will moderate in coming years. IQVIA’s new report on U.S. medicines spending projects that immunology, oncology, and neurology will continue to drive the growth in drug spending.

Pfizer is already in the mix of companies pursuing vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus. The pharma giant is now broadening its scope with a deal to acquire ReViral Therapeutics, a biotech with two clinical-stage antivirals, each taking a different approach to stopping the potentially deadly pathogen.

Creyon Bio is the latest company to launch with artificial intelligence technology for drug R&D. The startup claims its technology can provide sufficient safety and toxicity data to enable a therapy to bypass the animal research currently needed before clinical trials.

The biopharmaceutical industry continues to be a hotbed of activity, with more than 6,000 products in active development and a growing share of that innovation coming from new geographic regions. The findings are from a new industry report from IQVIA.

ProKidney is going public in a SPAC merger that infuses the biotech with $825 million for Phase 3 tests and manufacturing of its autologous cell therapy for chronic kidney disease. More than slowing the decline in organ function, ProKidney says its cell therapy offers the potential to reverse injury caused by the condition.

A class-action lawsuit, filed by six North Carolina residents, alleges that HCA Healthcare bought Mission Health to gain monopolistic control in the Western part of the state, enabling it to drive up prices while lowering the quality of care.

Xilis is developing technology that creates a living model of a patient’s tumor, then applies artificial intelligence to determine the best drug or drug combinations to treat the cancer. Clinical trials are planned to test this precision medicine approach and the biotech startup has raised $70 million to fund its research.

Four years after a private equity acquisition took Parexel private, the contract research organization is being acquired by two private equity firms for $8.5 billion. It’s the latest in a series of acquisitions to hit the CRO sector this year.

IQVIA is paying nearly $200 million to purchase a Myriad Genetics subsidiary that provides pharmaceutical contract services, a deal that will put the new acquisition in the company’s Q2 Solutions unit. The deal follows IQVIA’s April announcement that it had secured full ownership of Q2, which had been a joint venture with Quest Diagnostics.

IQVIA has acquired Quest Diagnostics’ minority stake in Q2 Solutions, a central laboratory services joint venture the two companies formed in 2015. But Quest will remain a preferred provider of lab testing services under an agreement with Q2.

Regenerative medicine might someday provide replacement organs for transplant patients. But Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, explained how the technology is already helping in the discovery and testing of drugs.

Humacyte is going public via a SPAC merger that infuses it with $255 million for its regenerative medicine pipeline. The biotech’s technology produces universally implantable tissue that functions like human blood vessels.

If Wilmington’s self-sufficient medical center cannot stand alone, can any public hospital avoid being subsumed into the large systems that economists say are helping propel the cost of American health care ever upward?

The development of the drug, DSTAT, is based on preclinical research indicating it can inhibit the inflammatory cytokines involved in the cytokine storms that cause much of the morbidity and mortality in Covid-19, as well as addressing the coagulation issues resulting in young patients having strokes.

The agency reissued the emergency use authorization that it gave to LabCorp last month for its RT-PCR test to allow for collection of samples at home by patients, with a doctor’s order.

After seeing their peers in Washington, and now New York, treat an onslaught of Covid-19 cases, hospitals in communities that haven’t been hit as hard yet are rushing to ready beds, ventilators and other needed equipment. MedCity News interviewed physicians across the U.S. to see how they are preparing for the next wave of the disease.