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Win One/ Lose One: Latest Rulings in the IP Battles Over CRISPR/Cas9

On March 28, the latest round in the intellectual property battle over CRISPR/Cas9 ended with the European Patent Office (EPO) ruling in favor of the University of California / University of Vienna, the work of scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, and licensee CRISPR Therapeutics. The EPO granted the University of California (UC) a wide-ranging...

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Reflecting on AACR

The American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting is always a source of major news and discussion on the oncology research front, and the 2017 meeting held earlier this month was no exception.   One area of particular interest was the encouraging data on long-term survival that is emerging for some patients treated with immuno-oncology...

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PARP Inhibitors Chalk Up Impressive Gains in Ovarian Cancer Maintenance Therapy

On March 27, the FDA gave Tesaro a broad approval for its PARP inhibitor, niraparib, as maintenance therapy for patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer after a complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy. The FDA decision came well in advance of the PDUFA date set for June 30, and...

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National Academies of Science and Medicine Cautiously Endorse Some Germline Gene Editing — In the Future

  In February the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine issued a new report on the technical, social and regulatory concerns surrounding gene editing, entitled, “Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance.” Authored by a 22 member panel of scientists, ethicists, lawyers, physicians and geneticists from around the world, the report...