Alterity Gets Patent for Compounds for Diseases Including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

 Alterity Therapeutics (ASX: ATH, NASDAQ: ATHE) ("Alterity" or "the Company"), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing disease modifying treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a new patent (No. 11,155,547) to Alterity.

The composition of matter patent, entitled "Compounds for and Methods of Treating Diseases", underwent prioritized examination by the USPTO. The patent covers more than 80 novel compounds and secures exclusivity for a new class of iron chaperones designed to redistribute the excess iron implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

"We continue to identify new drug candidates to expand our portfolio and protect our therapeutic approach to address neurodegeneration," said David Stamler, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Alterity. "With the granting of this patent and another composition of matter patent last year, we are establishing a strong foundation as a leader in targeting iron for potential disease modifying therapy for important neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's."

The patent will provide Alterity with exclusivity over the compounds claimed in the patent through 2041, thus providing a strong basis for drug development and commercialization in major neurodegenerative diseases.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alterity-therapeutics-granted-us-patent-123000762.html

Alnylam, Novartis to Collaborate on Liver Therapy

 Agreement will Bring Alnylam’s Proprietary siRNA Technology to Bear on Liver Target Identified by Novartis Researchers –

– Alnylam and Novartis have Agreed to Collaborate on Discovery and Development of siRNA-based Targeted Therapy to Restore Functional Liver Cells in Patients with End-Stage Liver Diseases --

– Collaboration Aims to Develop Liver-Targeted Therapy as a Potential Alternative to Transplantation for Patients Experiencing Liver Failure –

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alnylam-announces-collaboration-novartis-explore-123000768.html

Cyclacel 2022 business objectives

 Enrolling Patients in Two Registration-Directed Trials for Lead Candidate, Oral Fadraciclib –

– Expecting Key Data Readouts for Oral Fadraciclib in 2022 –

– Planning to Launch Two Registration-Directed Studies for Differentiated Oral PLK1 Inhibitor, CYC140 –

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cyclacel-pharmaceuticals-reviews-2021-achievements-120000726.html

Stryker to buy Vocera Communications for $2.97 billion

 Medical device maker Stryker Corp said on Thursday it had agreed to acquire digital care platform Vocera Communications Inc for about $2.97 billion.

Vocera shares were up nearly 27% at $78.63 before the bell, just shy of the offer price of $79.25 per share.

Founded in 2000, Vocera caters to nearly 1,900 hospitals, allowing healthcare workers to communicate and collaborate with co-workers and engage with patients and their families.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year and is estimated to have a neutral impact on net earnings per diluted share in 2022, Stryker said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/medical-device-maker-stryker-buy-132307124.html

Dynavax resumed at Buy by Goldman

 Target $38

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=dvax

aTyr gets orphan drug tag for sarcoidosis treatment

 aTyr Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIFE), a clinical stage biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of innovative medicines based on novel biological pathways, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the company orphan drug designation for its lead therapeutic candidate, ATYR1923, for the treatment of sarcoidosis. ATYR1923 is a potential first-in-class immunomodulator that downregulates innate and adaptive immune responses in uncontrolled inflammatory disease states. Clinical proof-of-concept was recently established for ATYR1923 in a Phase 1b/2a study in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, the main form of the disease, and the company expects to initiate a registrational trial in this indication this year.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atyr-pharma-announces-fda-orphan-130000337.html

Amgen, Generate Biomedicines to Collaborqte in Machine Learning

 Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Generate Biomedicines today announced a research collaboration agreement to discover and create protein therapeutics for five clinical targets across several therapeutic areas and multiple modalities. As part of the research collaboration, Amgen will pay $50 million in upfront funding for the initial five programs with a potential transaction value of $1.9 billion plus future royalties, and will have the option to nominate up to five additional programs, at additional cost. For each program, Amgen will pay up to $370 million in future milestones and royalties up to low double digits. Amgen will also participate in a future financing round for Generate. Additional terms were not disclosed.

"We are now at a scientific hinge point, where computational approaches can advance our knowledge of biology and further drive our ability to design the right molecule for some of the most challenging targets," said David M. Reese, M.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen. "We believe Generate Biomedicine's integrated in silico design and wet lab capabilities combined with Amgen's strength in protein engineering can accelerate our drug discovery efforts, generating novel protein sequences with optimal therapeutic properties."

Recognizing the unique discovery challenges in multispecific drug discovery, Amgen has invested over the last decade in the marriage of wet lab high throughput automation and dry lab computational biology. Amgen's generative biology strategy has led to the building of a Digital Biologics Discovery group, to harness the Company's pioneering strength in biology, automation, and protein engineering. The goal of generative biology at Amgen is to take this experience and expertise in biologics combined with emerging sequence-based drug design technologies to deliver complex multispecific medicines against a variety of difficult-to-treat diseases. Combining Amgen's biologics drug discovery expertise with the power of Generate Biomedicines Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform provides the opportunity to further facilitate multispecific drug design by shaving time off discovery timelines and generating potential lead molecules that have predictable manufacturability and clinical behavior.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amgen-generate-biomedicines-announce-multi-140000303.html