News

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, already important to both doctors treating patients and researchers conducting trials, might soon distinguish diseased and healthy tissue in differing colors, improving efforts to map and potentially diagnose and monitor diseases such as cystic fibrosis. A method allowing for two contrasting agents to be visible on MRI scans, called Dual…

Scientists have long known that defects in the CFTR protein cause cystic fibrosis. Now they’ve discovered that the defective protein leads to faulty insulin signaling, which, in turn, can cause diabetes and also contribute to cystic fibrosis complications. Insulin is a hormone that regulates metabolism, or the conversion of food to…

Corbus Pharmaceuticals plans to start a Phase 2b clinical trial of anabasum as a cystic fibrosis treatment by the end of 2017. The decision follows positive results of a Phase 2 study, the company said. Anabasum was formerly known as JBT-101 or Resunab. A Phase 2a trial usually looks at a drug’s effectiveness…

An influential group of European cystic fibrosis experts has signed off on the design of a Phase 3 clinical trial of Sollpura (lipromatase) as a treatment for a CF-related digestive disorder known as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. The European Cystic Fibrosis Society Clinical Trial Network’s approval will speed up the recruitment of…

Kate Farms, which specializes in plant-based, ready-to-use oral and tube feeding formulas, has rolled out its Core Essentials Peptide 1.5 product. The high-caloric, peptide-based formula contains no dairy, soy, gluten, or other common allergens. With its approval by the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS), it is now…

Verona Pharma recently announced the company’s accomplishments in the last six months, including an update to the company’s clinical trial in cystic fibrosis (CF) and positive interim results for its investigational therapy RPL554. RPL554 is an inhaled dual inhibitor of two enzymes, phosphodiesterase 3 and 4, and was previously shown to…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising patients and healthcare professionals to not use any liquid products made by PharmaTech, LLC due to possible contamination with Burkholderia cepacia bacteria, which may cause serious infections in patients with chronic lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis (CF). The regulatory agency previously had…

Concert Pharmaceuticals’ sale of its cystic fibrosis therapy CTP-656 to the larger Vertex Pharmaceuticals will lead to cystic fibrosis patients obtaining faster access to the therapy, Concert CEO Roger Tung predicted. He also said that the $160 million that Concert obtained from the sale will allow the company to advance its hair-loss therapy alopecia areata CTP-543 into…

AIT Therapeutics has administered its first doses of nitric oxide in a Phase 2 clinical trial of the compound’s ability to kill the drug-resistant bacteria often found in cystic fibrosis patients. The study’s overarching goal is to see whether AIT’s nitric oxide formulation can eliminate nontuberculous mycobacteria, or NTM, in patients…

Sweat from infants with cystic fibrosis contains substances that could be used as biomarkers of the disease and even identify new disease mechanisms, a study reports. The research, published in the journal ACS Central Science, was titled “The Sweat Metabolome of Screen-Positive Cystic Fibrosis Infants: Revealing Mechanisms beyond Impaired Chloride Transport.” Scientists…