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
Supernus Pharmaceuticals is expanding its central nervous system (CNS) drug lineup through a deal to acquire four US WorldMeds products with applications in Parkinson’s disease.
The products, three of them already... Read more »
Some former executives and investors behind the second gene therapy to win FDA approval are teaming up again. Their new company, Taysha Gene Therapies, is launching with $30 million in the... Read more »
Last fall, ADC Therapeutics (ADCT) concluded the time just wasn’t right for an IPO. Six months later, with its lead drug in a pivotal test and plans being drawn up... Read more »
COVID-19’s spread has clamped down on a lot of economic activity, including the work of developing and testing new medicines. But the FDA isn’t showing signs of slowing down, at least... Read more »
Affinivax has a lead program with early clinical data showing the potential to best a pharmaceutical giant’s blockbuster vaccine. The startup now has $120 million in financing to see just how... Read more »
An Immunomedics therapy for an aggressive form of breast cancer won FDA approval on Wednesday. It’s the company’s first regulatory nod, and it covers a product expected to become a blockbuster... Read more »
The start of a potentially big biomedical breakthrough is blooming within all of us. Drug research aiming to turn bacteria into microbiome therapies now spans programs aiming to address gut disorders,... Read more »
A Cara Therapeutics drug developed to treat the severe itching experienced by patients receiving hemodialysis has met the main goal of a second late-stage study, setting up the experimental medicine for... Read more »
The FDA has granted speedy approval for an Incyte drug developed to treat cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer affecting the bile ducts.
The regulatory nod for the drug, pemigatinib (Pemazyre), comes more... Read more »
A growing number of drug developers are embracing artificial intelligence as a tool for finding new medicines. Lantern Pharma is betting the technology can also resurrect failed cancer drugs and it... Read more »
Some of the targets in cancer research are visible and well known, but they’re hard to hit with new drugs all the same. PIC Therapeutics is developing medicines aiming for one... Read more »
[Updated, 3:13 p.m. See below.] Pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi are teaming up on COVID-19 research, aiming to combine their respective technologies in a new vaccine that could start... Read more »
Seven years ago Alnylam Pharmaceuticals sold rights to one of its preclinical drugs, gaining upfront cash and $180 million in potential milestone payments, plus royalties, for a therapy taking a novel... Read more »
An AstraZeneca drug designed to block tumor growth is now approved as a treatment for neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a rare inherited disorder that leads to tumors on nerves throughout the... Read more »
The COVID-19 pandemic has stopped enrollment in many clinical trials and postponed the start of others but there is still life in the life sciences sector. The coronavirus research is expected. It’s... Read more »
Multiple COVID-19 vaccine candidates that use a new technology called messenger RNA are now being readied for clinical trials that Pfizer and BioNTech plan to start in coming weeks.
The partnership... Read more »
CRISPR is key to the cancer drugs that Tango Therapeutics is developing, but the startup isn’t out to edit disease-causing genes. Tango uses the technology as a tool for finding drug... Read more »
Some diseases have proven difficult to address using conventional tools of drug discovery that target disease-causing proteins. Roche is placing a $190 million bet on Arrakis Therapeutics, a startup whose technology... Read more »
Sage Therapeutics is cutting workers who sell its only commercialized drug in a corporate reorganization that it says allows it to focus on clinical-stage compounds, including a depression treatment that failed... Read more »
An itching drug that was a key part of the merger of Menlo Therapeutics and Foamix Pharmaceuticals has failed two late-stage studies, leading to a halt on further development of the... Read more »
