Articles By Marcus Johnson

  1. Immunotherapies Proving Successful In Treating Cancer 6/3/2014

    Merck, Bristol-Myers, AstraZeneca, and Roche are all currently working on immunotherapy treatments for cancer, Bloomberg News reports. According to Bloomberg, which highlights some of the recent developments in the immunotherapy field in a recent article, Merck’s MK-3475 drug has been successful, shrinking head-and-neck cancer tumors in 11 of 56 patients. Roche’s MPDL3280A immunotherapy has also worked well on patients, and on May 31st researchers presented data that showed that 13 of 30 patients with advanced bladder cancer saw their tumors shrink significantly after treatment.

  2. GSK Partners With Adaptimmune For Cancer Drug Research 6/3/2014
    GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK, has announced that it will be partnering with Adaptimmune in order to develop new cancer drugs. The companies will be focusing on developing drugs that can strengthen the body’s white blood cells in order to help them fight off cancers. GSK was recently in the news for selling its oncology business to Novartis for $16 billion this past April. However, as Bloomberg News says, this new deal reaffirms the company’s commitment to cancer drugs.
  3. Drug Combination Found To Increase Prostate Cancer Survival Rates 6/3/2014
    Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have found that men with widely spread prostate cancer that were treated with docetaxel in combination with standard hormone therapy lived 58 months, while men who were not treated with the drug lived only 44 months.
  4. Study Suggests Diabetes Drug Could Become Weight Loss Tool 6/3/2014

    Researchers at the University of Liverpool in England have found that the drug liraglutide, which is known in branded form as Victoza, can help the obese lose weight. Dr. John Wilding, the head of the department of obesity and endocrinology at the University of Liverpool and lead researcher, commented on the results of the study. “Liraglutide, an injection treatment already approved for diabetes treatment, can help reduce body weight in people with obesity when used at a higher dose than is usually used in diabetes,” he said. “These results suggest liraglutide is effective and overall well-tolerated for obesity treatment.”

  5. Cancer Research UK Scientists Gain New Insights Into Pancreatic Cancer 6/2/2014
    Scientists at Cancer Research UK have announced that they have gained greater insight into gemcitabine, which is a commonly used pancreatic cancer drug. The researchers were able to find out more about how the drug is broken down in pancreatic cancer cells.
  6. Sotio AS Begins Phase III Clinical Trial For Prostate Cancer Drug 6/2/2014
    Sotio AS, which is a biotechnology company based in the Czech Republic, has announced that it is beginning Phase III clinical trials for its prostate cancer treatment, DCVAC/PCa. DCVAC is an immunotherapy treatment. Unlike conventional pharmaceutical cancer drugs, immunotherapy treatments use the body’s own immune system to target cancer cells. Researchers believe that after the immune system has killed cancer cells, it will remember them, preventing the spread of cancer and limiting the risk of remission in the future.
  7. FDA Grants AbbVie Rare Eye Disease Drug Orphan Drug Designation 6/2/2014

    The FDA has announced that AbbVie’s Humira (adalimumab) drug has been granted orphan drug designation. The orphan drug designation is intended for the development of drugs to treat rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. Humira treats non-infectious intermediate, posterior, or pan-uveitis, or chronic non-infectious anterior uveitis, all of which are rare and dangerous inflammatory eye diseases.

  8. BioCryst Hereditary Angioedema Phase II Trial Meets Expectations 6/2/2014
    BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has announced that its hereditary angioedema, or HAE, drug, met the company’s primary efficacy endpoint, along with several of its secondary endpoints in its Phase 2a clinical trial. The drug, called BCX4161, is a selective inhibitor of plasma kallikrein, indicated to prevent the attacks characteristic of hereditary angioedema (HAE).
  9. Bayer-Onyx Thyroid Cancer Drug Approved By EC 6/2/2014
    Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which is a subsidiary of Amgen, and Bayer HealthCare have announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for the companies’ Nexavar drug. Nexavar, or sorafenib, is an oral multi-kinase inhibitor that treats patients with progressive, locally advanced, or metastatic differentiated thyroid carcinoma.
  10. VCU Researchers Find MS Drug Can Eliminate Traumatic Memories 5/30/2014

    Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine have found that a common multiple sclerosis drug has another benefit: it can be used to eliminate traumatic memories. The drug that the researchers tested is called fingolimod, or FTY720. The drug is an oral treatment for MS, which works by suppressing the body’s immune system. The drug is classified as a prodrug which, when taken orally, is phosphorylated to its active form, called FTY720-phosphate.