Inside This Issue: Blood Brain Barrier
Top News Alerts: Product Updates, Deals & Financings
Highlights: International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease 2010
NIH Corner: Collaboration made simple
Company Spotlight: to-BBB
Subscribe now to access over 40 articles covering developments in drugs, devices and diagnostics for the brain and nervous system.
Market Highlights: Cypress Investor Offers Buyout, FDA Sets Bar For Obesity
The market for neurovascular products continued to heat up with Johnson & Johnson declaring its intent to purchase Micrus Endovascular for $480 million (see story, page 14)... While the move to add a late stage drug to its pipeline would seem to have been a good one for Cypress, public investors are in no mood for long term commitments with new financial requirements. Ramius offered to buy out the company for $4.00 per share, a 60% premium over its recent price, but still only 42% of its 52 week high of $9.49. (see story, page 12).... An FDA panel voted against approval of Vivus’ (VVUS) Qnexa saying that the risks outweigh its ability to help patients lose weight. The FDA is scheduled to decide whether to clear Qnexa on Oct. 28, six days after the deadline for Arena’s lorcaserin. Arena (ARNA) managed to close a deal with Eisai and the stock rallied on Vivus’ setback (see story, page 7, 13)...
The Blood Brain Barrier: Who Will Deliver?
The blood brain barrier (BBB) was discovered serendipitously more than a 100 years ago.There are several ways to classify methods that are used to deal with the BBB. One could for instance mechanistically group procedures that bypass the barrier, others that try to penetrate it, and yet others that open it temporarily, but perhaps a more practical classification would look at local versus global and short-lived versus permanent. Some methods cause a localized breach while others manage to provide a more generalized entry. Similarly some treatments provide a temporary breach while others are more long-lasting. This article outlines methods and companies working on solutions to blood brain barrier delivery including devices, conjugates, gene therapy, cell implants and other methods...
To-BBB: Leverges New Platform to Target Brain Tumors, Form Partnerships
to-BBB was founded in 2003 by Pieter Gaillard, whom CEO Willem van Weperen calls "the go-to person for blood brain barrier in Europe." Gaillard started his work at the Blood-Brain-Barrier Research Group at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The technology he developed while working there was called 2-B Trans. It was based on conjugating a candidate drug to a modified diphtheria toxin to promote endocytosis into the brain. For various reasons, Gaillard went out in 2008 to look for a second generation technology. He found one in Taiwan, and to-BBB licensed it from the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in November 2008....
Companies Covered In This Issue Include: Arena, Eisai, Neuros, Ipierian, AssureRx, Asupex, Orexigen, Micrus, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Janssen, Elan, Purdue, Uroplasty, VisionCare Opthalmic, MediciNova, Reverse Medical, Shire, Xenoport, NeuroPace, Allergen, Merck, Syntermed, BrainScope, Supernus, Addex, Nabi, Cephalon, BHR Pharma, Arcion, Vernaliz, Biogen, Pfizer, Albany Molecular Research, Seaside, Shinogi, Brainlab, Acadia, Biovail, Geron, toBBB, Medtronic, Codman, neuroNova, MedGenesis, Amgen, CellMed, Ceregene, Neurologix, StemCells Inc., AngioChem, ArmaGen, NsGene, Neurotech SA, Xigen, Zogenix, Masimo, SEDLine, Evotec, Cypress, Hospira, Javelin
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