Drug Discovery + Development

A study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has shown that increasing glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) activity in fat cells leads to significant weight loss in obese mice. Published in Cell Metabolism, the research highlights GIPR’s potential as a therapeutic target for obesity and related metabolic diseases. “Our study brings GIPR in fat…

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer transforms proteomics by enabling rapid and detailed analysis of biological samples. It can identify over 8,000 protein groups from a human cell line digest in just eight minutes, significantly enhancing experimental scale and statistical power. The instrument integrates three advanced technologies: a high-resolution quadrupole mass filter, the Thermo…

MIT researchers have developed AbMap, a computational model that predicts antibody structures with improved accuracy. This could accelerate the development of treatments for infectious diseases like SARS-CoV-2. Unlike existing AI models, AbMap focuses on antibodies’ hypervariable regions — highly diverse segments critical for binding pathogens — and overcomes limitations in previous protein modeling approaches. Using…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending December 27, 2024, closed at 3,890.59, rising 1.77% (or 67.68 basis points). Automotive stocks, in particular, drove the uptick, with Honda surging by 20.39% after announcing a merger plan with Nissan. Meanwhile, tech giants showed mixed results, as IBM slid slightly (-0.26%) and Microsoft dropped -1.38%.…

Dozens of ambitious scientific investigations — including projects aiming to improve cancer detection, advance treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, and enhance respiratory therapy — have safely returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). The nearly 50 experiments, sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, were transported back on SpaceX’s 31st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission…

While the term “biotechnology” was coined in 1919, “techbio” dates back roughly a century after that. Around 2019, the VC firm Artis Ventures set up a venture capital fund named Artis techbio with the aim of uniting software, computational biology, and drug development into a cohesive framework. The ambition behind this idea has sometimes surpassed…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending October 25, 2024, closed at 3962.81 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -1.49% (or -60.14 basis points). Seven RDWI members gained value last week from 0.27% (Toyota) to 5.88% (General Motors). Eighteen RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.27%…

For years, incomplete data and misconceptions have clouded the question of pharmaceutical how much it costs to bring therapies to market. The lack of clarity has led to debates over drug pricing, industry profits, and healthcare policies that are not always rooted in reality. For instance, a common belief persists that drug developers spend more…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending October 4, 2024, closed at 4.005.40 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 0.62% (or 24.71 basis points). Eight RDWI members gained value last week from 1.07% (Eli Lilly & Co.) to 6.71% (Alibaba).  Seventeen RDWI members lost value the previous week…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 27, 2024, closed at 3,980.69 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -0.66% (or -26.26 basis points). Thirteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.03% (Sanofi SA) to 20.30% (Alibaba). Twelve RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.21%…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 13, 2024, closed at 3,924.01 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.95% (or 112.59 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.30% (Volkswagen AG) to 14.26% (Oracle). Eight RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.85%…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending August 23, 2024, closed at 3,947.43 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.78% (or 68.94 basis points). Twenty-two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.11% (Meta Platforms) to 7.23% (Ford Motor). Three RDWI members lost value the previous week from…

What do frictionless parking experiences and life-saving drugs have in common? For data scientist June Guo, the answer lies in setting AI algorithms loose on vast troves of data. Before setting his sights on human biology, Guo worked at Metropolis Technologies, a company focused on transforming the parking experience through the use of advanced computer…

In 2023, the world’s top companies invested hefty sums in R&D, with tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta leading the pack. Amazon alone poured $85.622 billion into technology and infrastructure, which includes R&D. The Seattle-headquartered company’s spending reflects Amazon’s ambition to lead not just in e-commerce, but in a growing number of fields ranging…

While economic uncertainty and inflation continue to make headlines, the broader STEM job market remains resilient, channeling LL Cool J’s line: “Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.” Yes, there have been a wave of layoffs in the tech sector in 2023 and 2024, but the demand for STEM and R&D talent…

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) tools have been a game-changer in the halls of drug discovery, where rapid and affordable sequencing has enabled faster characterization of samples, the ability to interrogate individual cells, and more frequent monitoring of cell lines for genetic drift, among other capabilities. While these platforms have contributed to significant advances in drug discovery…

Biopharma assay developers and clinical research labs are under pressure to save time and reduce costs while assuring accuracy and delivering reproducible results. This can be accomplished by maximizing the number of targets per sample using multiplexing. The new Applied Biosystems TaqMan QSY2 probes* from Thermo Fisher Scientific demonstrate better assay performance retention when transitioning…

Heading into 2024, the pharma industry finds itself in uncharted waters. On the one hand, the sector’s commitment to R&D investment and innovation output is likely to remain strong, with tools based on AI, automation, and real-world data promising more streamlined drug candidate optimization. Additionally, the pharma sector is typically resilient in economic downturns. Financial…

Speedata, whose first-of-its-kind Analytics Processing Unit (APU) is designed to accelerate big data analytic workloads across industries, has announced the results of a simulation of its APU on a compound similarity analysis workload in the pharmaceutical industry. Using the APU, the analysis was completed in 19 minutes, compared to 90 hours when using a CPU…

Proscia, a provider of digital and computational pathology solutions, has announced that Virscio, a provider of translational research and development services, has deployed Concentriq for Research. The contract research organization (CRO) is leveraging Proscia’s flagship software platform to provide faster, more informed drug safety insights, helping its sponsors to improve research and development (R&D) efficiency.…

By Jesse Harris, Digital Marketing Coordinator, ACDLabs In September 2019 the FDA learned that the common heartburn products Zantac and Axid contained elevated levels of the carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Ranitidine and nizatidine, the active ingredients in these medications, appeared to be the source of this impurity. By April 1, 2020, the FDA asked that all…

Thermo Fisher Scientific is adding early development work for oral solid dose therapies to its Bourgoin, France site, enabling that location to address customers’ workflow from early drug development through commercial manufacturing and underscoring the company’s commitment to helping clients get medicines to patients sooner. “In the last decade, Thermo Fisher has led and advanced…

Thermo Fisher Scientific and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), will accelerate advanced cell therapies for difficult-to-treat conditions, including cancer, rare diseases, and other illnesses, from a newly opened cGMP manufacturing facility adjacent to UCSF Medical Center’s Mission Bay campus. The partnership between Thermo Fisher and UCSF, first announced in 2021, has the potential to demonstrate…

Waters Corporation introduces Alliance iS, the next-generation intelligent HPLC System, designed to reduce compliance risk by adding new levels of proactive error detection, troubleshooting, and ease of use. When combined with Waters’ compliance-ready Empower Chromatography Software and eConnect HPLC Columns, the Alliance iS High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) System streamlines the task of making accurate…

Proscia, a provider of digital and computational pathology solutions, has strengthened its position in the $12 billion[1] preclinical R&D market. At the center of its expansion, the company is enhancing its flagship Concentriq for Research, trusted by 14 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies as a singular software platform for pathology workflows and data, to…