FarmaKology Newsletter - Issue #22

Oct 17, 2019

Today's Startup

Recursion Pharmaceuticals

Recursion is a clinical-stage biotechnology company combining experimental biology and automation with artificial intelligence in a massively parallel system to efficiently discover potential drugs for diverse indications, including genetic disease, inflammation, immunology, and infectious disease. Recursion applies causative perturbations to human cells to generate disease models and associated biological image data. Recursion’s rich, relatable database of more than a petabyte of biological images generated in-house on the company’s robotics platform enables advanced machine learning approaches to reveal drug candidates, mechanisms of action, and potential toxicity, with the eventual goal of decoding biology and advancing new therapeutics to radically improve lives.

News

FDA OKs Baloxavir Marboxil for Patients at High Risk of Flu Complications

Officials with the FDA today approved single-dose baloxavir marboxil (Xofluza, Genentech) for use in patients who are at a high risk of developing influenza-related complications.The FDA initially approved baloxavir marboxil in October 2018 for the treatment of acute, uncomplicated influenza in patients aged 12 years and older who have been symptomatic for no more than 48 hours. The approval marked the first new antiviral flu treatment with a novel mechanism of action backed by the agency in nearly 20 years, according to former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD.

EMulate Therapeutics® Inks Distribution Agreement for India with Sayre Therapeutics

EMulate Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage therapeutic device company developing non-invasive treatments for cancers and other serious diseases, announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement for the distribution of the company’s proprietary Voyager ulRFE® system for treatment of patients with selected brain cancer indications – both recurrent and newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM) and diffuse midline glioma (DMG), in India.

Walgreens, Centene and RxAdvance partner on cloud-based PBM

Walgreens Boots Alliance, insurer Centene and pharmacy benefit manager RxAdvance are partnering on a cloud-based pharmacy benefit platform. The companies said the new pharmacy platform will increase transparency, enhance customer experience and result in lower costs. Centene last year bought stake in RxAdvance, a cloud-based PBM. As part of the new partnership, Walgreens will also invest stake into RxAdvance.

British firm wins medical cannabis licence

British company has been granted a licence to grow cannabis for medical testing.The Home Office has awarded Sativa Cultivation and Extraction (SCE) a Controlled Drug licence for cannabis cultivation, production, possession and supply.