Monthly Archives: June 2014

Calimmune stem cell therapy, HIV cure update.

Calimmune, Inc. today announced that encouraging results from a first group of participants indicates the company is ready to begin treating a second cohort in a clinical trial involving the use of Cal-1, an innovative gene-based stem cell therapy to help protect individuals infected with HIV from progressing to AIDS.

“While still early in clinical development, this announcement demonstrates real progress towards this mission. The accomplishment of Calimmune’s team is a great example of how CIRM partnerships are working to impact patient’s lives today.”

Calimmune was given approval to move … Read more

Benitec Director –   Dr. Melvyn John Bridges.

Dr. Melvyn John Bridges B AppSc FAICD was Independent NonExecutive Director of Campbell Brothers Ltd since September 29 2009. He has over 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and healthcare industries. During this period he founded and managed diagnostics biotechnology and medical device businesses. He is currently Chairman of Alchemia Limited ImpediMed Limited and resigned from the post of NonExecutive Director of Benitec Limited . He also represent Chairmanship of Tissue Therapies Limited . He was previously Chairman of Peptech Limited Incitive Limited and a nonexecutive director of Genera … Read more

Alnylam and Benitec

Alnylam (ALNY) is a $5.1B company and Benitec Biopharma (BTEBY, BNIKF) is a $120M company. Both are biothech companies working in the field of RNAi (RiboNucleic Acid Interference). Both have access to a wide patent estate: Alnylam’s estate covering Small Interfering RNA (siRNA) and Benitec’s estate covering DNA Directed RNAi (ddRNAi and shRNA).

In theory they are competitors, each looking to silence genes which produce harmful levels of proteins. However, in reality this competition has not been manifest. Alnylam has concentrated its pipeline efforts primarily on rare … Read more