Frank Vinluan
Xconomy Editor Frank Vinluan is a business journalist with experience covering technology and life sciences. Based in Raleigh, he was a staff writer at the Triangle Business Journal covering technology, biotechnology and energy before joining MedCityNews.com as North Carolina bureau chief. Prior to moving to North Carolina’s Research Triangle in 2007 he held business reporting positions at The Des Moines Register and The Seattle Times.
Recent posts
A Roche drug in development as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy achieved the main goals of a key study, helping to build the case that the drug could challenge a... Read more »
These are heady times for neuroscience research. Startups developing new approaches to brain disorders are raising money to advance their discoveries toward clinical trials. One failed neuro drug is getting... Read more »
[Updated 6:41 p.m. See below.] A drug that Celgene and Acceleron Pharma developed to treat low red blood cell levels in patients who have a rare blood disorder now... Read more »
During the state of the union address this year, President Trump pledged to end HIV transmission within the next decade. A key part of that plan is an HIV prevention drug... Read more »
Biotech startup eGenesis, which is applying gene editing to animal organs in order to make them suitable for human transplant, has raised $100 million to ramp up work on its kidney... Read more »
The onset of one of the most devastating forms of dementia often comes with a misdiagnosis. Personality and behavioral changes in a patient can spark a hypothesis of depression or... Read more »
Biogen is bolstering its strategy of selling biosimilars—lower-cost versions of biological drugs that are losing patent protection—with a $100 million deal for rights to two eye products. The drug maker is... Read more »
Medical device giant Stryker is strengthening its presence in trauma and extremities surgeries with a cash deal to acquire Wright Medical for $4 billion.
According to deal terms announced Monday, Kalamazoo,... Read more »
An experimental Halozyme Therapeutics treatment for pancreatic cancer has failed a pivotal study, and the company is stopping further development of the drug and closing its oncology operations as part of... Read more »
The brain has stymied many efforts to develop new neuroscience drugs, leading a number of big pharmaceutical companies to pull back on such R&D work. This week, Amgen joined them.
Amgen... Read more »
Beta amyloid grabs most of the headlines and research dollars for Alzheimer’s disease, but efforts to develop drugs targeting that brain protein have largely come up short. Pinteon Therapeutics is trying... Read more »
Dicerna Pharmaceuticals’ research on medicines intended to stop a gene from producing a disease-causing protein has caught the eye of Roche, which is paying the company $200 million up front for... Read more »
Novartis must stop enrollment of a clinical trial testing its gene therapy for a rare, muscular disorder after safety concerns surfaced in data from an animal study.
The FDA put a... Read more »
Nuvation Bio peeked out from stealth mode Monday to reveal $275 million in financing and an executive team stacked with biotech veterans.
The cancer drug developer, which has offices in New... Read more »
Sonde Health, a company developing technology to monitor and diagnose people by analyzing their speech, has appointed David Liu to serve as CEO. Liu is the former president and chief operating... Read more »
Acorda Therapeutics is laying off about one quarter of its staff in order to save money and focus its remaining resources on commercializing a Parkinson’s disease drug that launched earlier this... Read more »
Cancer therapies that harness the immune system don’t work for all patients. Verseau Therapeutics aims to bring cancer immunotherapy to more people by targeting a type of immune cell present in... Read more »
New brand-name drugs typically grab the life science headlines. A venture capital firm will invest tens of millions to develop one and a pharmaceutical company hopes to recoup hundreds of millions... Read more »
Cell therapies are made by tinkering with a patient’s immune cells so that they can better recognize and destroy cancer cells. These drugs give patients another treatment option for certain cancers... Read more »
An experimental drug that was the centerpiece of a $1.6 billion Eli Lilly acquisition last year has now failed a pivotal test in pancreatic cancer.
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) said... Read more »
