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QPS is a GLP/GCP-compliant global contract research organization (CRO) delivering the highest grade of discovery, preclinical, and clinical drug development services. Since 1995, it has rapidly expanded into a full-service CRO with 1100+ employees in the US, Europe, India and Asia. Today, QPS offers expanded pharmaceutical contract R&D services with special expertise in Neuropharmacology, DMPK, Toxicology, Bioanalysis, Translational Medicine and all Phases of Clinical Development.
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BioPharmGuy
Happened upon a company whose homepage began with: “The AI-Powered Healthcare Ecosystem” and had seen enough. No listing for you!
Companies Added & Removed
20 companies added, 15 removed.
Best New Name:
Worst New Name, by far:
You Will Be Missed:
Lattice Biologics
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Eli Lilly
FDA gave Lilly a dressing down in relation to their submission that relied wholly on data from a Chinese clinical trial. FDA was concerned because not only are there obvious genetic differences between the Chinese and American populations at large which could lead to different clinical outcomes within each country, but probably more importantly, the FDA does not trust doctors and hospitals in China to produce legitimate data.
If a trial is partly run in the US and partly in China, they could at least compare the data sets and see if there was any funny business going on. Without a comparator, there is no way to know if the Chinese data is aboveboard.
Some people claim this is prejudiced/anti-China in nature, but keep in mind, China has still refused to allow its citizens to receive the mRNA vaccines produced in America and Europe despite there now being about a billion data points showing they are safe and effective. Politics and public health cannot be severed completely.
In some better news for Lilly, the FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization for bebtelovimab, their monoclonal antibody for Covid which is showing good efficacy against Omicron.
Plenty of Cash in the C
Variantyx just announced $41M in Series C2 funding. This comes after a $20M Series C in March 2021 and a $6M Series C in Nov 2021. So they really need cash, but realllly don’t want to be that company raising a D round.
Next year will they do a C3? Maybe an IPO instead? Maybe mash 'em up and do a C3PO? Oh dear!
PAIONful
Hearing that terrible attempt at being cute makes us want to smash a cherry PAION their faces.
Let’s Have a Meeting
Nerx Biosciences is a drug company working on cancer therapies. They have not yet advanced a product to the clinical trial stage, but no doubt they’ve done a lot of research and had many, many useful internal discussions over the past 13 years. In case you were wondering when they hold these fruitful lab meetings, no worries - they’ve helpfully posted the schedule on their website.
Who’s in Charge
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mexec
Recruiting & Staffing Specialists for the Australian Science, Health & Technology Sectors
Is your company looking to fill roles in Australia?
Are you interested in possibly relocating to Australia?
The mexec team has plentiful experience resourcing staff from Australia as well as overseas, including Executive search and selection services to build your leadership team.
mexec also provides support to individuals seeking to transition to a new role in Australia.
See mexec.com or email Marilyn directly on marilyn@mexec.com for further information on accessing opportunities in Australia for you or your company.
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Auroch 2.0
Modern cattle were bred from a large creature called an auroch. You may recall having seen them featured prominently in paleolithic cave paintings across Europe. After their disappearance 400 years ago, scientists are trying to 'unbreed' various cattle species to create something resembling the original auroch.
Why? Who knows. Not like drivers across the continent will enjoy a bunch of wild 1000 lb animals lumbering around everywhere. And surely farmers aren't yearning for a giant creature to ravage their crops.
At least this sounds more scientifically plausible than that whole mammoth resurrection project.
New FDA Chief
Things are looking good for Robert Califf and his 1970s visage. The nominee for FDA’s leadership was re-confirmed by the Senate this week. It's great news for aficionados of big bushy moustaches and bowtie enthusiasts alike.
Pretty sad that someone who, six years ago, was confirmed for this exact position by 89 Senators was this time opposed by 47 of them despite not doing anything problematic while on the job, nor since his tenure ended.
Covid and Stillbirths
Pre-pandemic, 0.6% of babies in America were stillborn. In a CDC analysis of deliveries from March 2020 to Sept 2021, they found stillborn probability for Covid+ women was about 1.26% whereas for Covid- women it was 0.64%. During the months of the Delta wave specifically, having Covid quadrupled the odds a woman would deliver a stillborn baby. Data are not yet available for the more recent Omicron wave, but it seems unlikely to be as bad as those dark Delta days.
A different study analyzed 64 stillborn fetuses born to Covid+ women around the world, analyzed tissues and fetal remains and concluded that SARS-COV-2 was more or less asphyxiating the fetus by destroying the placenta.
Outer Space is Rough
About 40 SpaceX satellites were lost soon after launch. The cause was solar winds which led to a bulging atmosphere that caused more drag on the satellites than expected. But sure, let's go colonize Mars.
If you’ve never seen the SpaceX satellites in the wild, it's sometimes possible to see them shortly after they launch. They used to be much brighter, but SpaceX has toned down their reflectivity on the request of astronomers. Whenever they launch more, you can check out when they might be visible wherever you are.
Run for Your Life
A new study out of Iowa State took a look at post-vaccination neutralizing antibody titers in people who received influenza and Covid vaccines. They compared people who exercised just after receiving their vaccine dose to those who didn't. The results showed the quantity of neutralizing antibodies (antibodies that bind the viruses of interest) was higher in the exercise group.
The study was pretty small and a major caveat here is for people under age 33, they saw almost no increase if they only exercised for 45 minutes post vaccination – there was a big jump when it was bumped up to 90 minutes. People aged 62+ only had to exercise for 45 minutes, which, let's face it, for a lot of people is a good year.
That (slow) stampede you hear is 99% of Americans turning around and walking away, accepting their lower antibody titers while thinking about which drive thru to hit up for dinner.
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ETC.
If you missed it, head back to the top of the email and check out our new and improved Sanofi-inspired logo.
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