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Invitrogen Contributes New Research for ALS
June 17, 2010
Invitrogen's stem cell business is participating in a new research program designed to find treatments for ALS. Life Technologies, Invitrogen's parent company, has partnered with the University of California San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to research cell transplant therapies as a potential ALS treatment.


Pfizer Adds New Rare Disease Unit
June 16, 2010
Pfizer has announced the creation of a rare disease research unit, focusing on discovering medicines for diseases affecting less than 200,000 patients. Of the more than 6,000 diseases classified as "orphan" (of which ALS is one), fewer than 10% have therapies that directly address the underlying disease. "Pfizer's Rare Disease Research Unit will pursue treatments across all therapeutic areas and modalities and will serve as the focal point for the company's existing research on rare diseases," reports FierceBiotech. The Rare Diseases Research Unit will be lead by Edward Mascioli, M.D., the founder and former CEO of Dapis Capital, a private equity firm focused on healthcare and the life sciences.


FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Secures $29 Million for Neurodegenerative Disease
June 15, 2010
FoldRx Pharmaceuticals has closed a $29 million financing deal to support a program in neurodegenerative disease. "With the addition of two top-tier venture firms to our already strong investor base, we believe we now have access to the resources necessary to commercialize tafamidis and build FoldRx into an independent, orphan-disease focused company," said Richard Labaudinière, Ph.D., President and CEO of FoldRx, in a FierceBiotech release. FoldRx Pharmaceuticals is focusing on disease-modifying small-molecule therapeutics to treat diseases of protein misfolding and aggregation, key pathological processes for many chronic neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS.


Aukera Therapeutics Named 2010 MIT Business Plan Contest Life Sciences Track Winner
June 11, 2010
Cambridge-based start-up biotech, Aukera Therapeutics, is developing Angiogenin, a novel protein therapy, to treat ALS. As the winner of MIT's Business Plan Contest, Aukera will receive seed funding and in-kind support from The Cambridge Innovation Center.


Drugmakers Pool Data from Failed Alzheimer's Clinical Trials
June 11, 2010
In an undertaking remarkably similar to one of Prize4Life's projects in development, a group of drugmakers are coming together to share pooled data from failed Alzheimer's Disease clinical trials in an attempt to figure out what is going wrong in group studies, and what can be done to improve the process of R&D. Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Astra Zeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, and Abbott will all pool data, compiling one large, searchable dataset that will hopefully yield insights on epidemiology and disease patterns. Prize4Life is currently in negotiations to obtain funding to create a similar such dataset for ALS.