Biotech Companies Continue Quest for Advanced Drug Developments

PALM BEACH, Florida, December 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Biotech stocks are hoping for some sort of cut in regulations to speed up drug candidate approvals as companies focus on innovative drug advancements despite recent pricing concerns.  Biotech stocks with current and recent developments in the markets include:  Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (NASDAQ: MBRX), Achaogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAO), Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKRX), Organovo Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONVO) and Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE).

Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBRX), a preclinical pharmaceutical company focused on the development of anti-cancer drug candidates, many of which are based on license agreements with The University of Texas System on behalf of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, today announced its scientific presentation at the 28th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics. Waldemar Priebe, PhD, Moleculin's Founder, Founding Scientist, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board presented the Abstract on November 30th at the Symposium in Munich, Germany.  Read the full Moleculin Biotech (MBRX) Press Release and more news for the company at: http://marketnewsupdates.com/news/mbrx.html

Wally Klemp, Chairman and CEO stated, "This presentation shows proof of concept data for our WP1122 portfolio, including data demonstrating increased survival of animals with human brain tumors treated with WP1122, as well as its biodistribution and pharmacokinetics. In non-optimal doses and treatment regimens, our lead inhibitor WP1122 performed equal to or better than the current market leader, cytotoxic drug temozolomide and significantly improved survival in animals treated with WP1122 in combination with temozolomide."

The following is an overview of the presentation, titled "Latentiation of 2-deoxy-D-glucose". No curative therapy exists for patients with high-grade malignant gliomas (GBMs). New approaches to the treatment of this disease are currently being evaluated with mixed results. One approach, that deserves to be therapeutically exploited, is targeting brain tumor metabolism. 2-Deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), a known effective inhibitor of glycolysis, has been clinically tested but results did not meet expectations due to poor drug-like characteristics and inability to achieve therapeutic concentrations of 2-DG in the brain.

Dr. Waldemar Priebe stated, "We proposed to use latentiation of 2-DG to overcome this problem by chemically modifying biologically active 2-DG to form prodrugs with increased brain uptake that will be able to liberate in vivo the parent compound 2-DG in the brain. In our approach, we synthesized a series of differentially acetylated derivatives of 2-DG. Preliminary in vivo studies in mice of selected diacetates of 2-DG demonstrated >9 fold increased levels of 2-DG in the brain when compared with levels of 2-DG after administration of equimolar amount of 2-DG itself. Ultimately, our studies focused on a single compound 3,6-di-O-acetyl-2-deoxy-D-glucose (WP1122)."

In other Biotech developments andmarket performance of notein the sector: 

Achaogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAO) closed up over 148% on Monday at $13.03 trading over 53 Million shares by the market close.  Achaogen, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibacterials addressing multi-drug resistant (MDR) gram-negative infections, yesterday announced that its lead product candidate, plazomicin, met the objective of non-inferiority compared to meropenem for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and achieved superiority for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) primary efficacy endpoints in the Phase 3 EPIC registration trial in patients with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) and acute pyelonephritis (AP).

Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKRX) closed up over 8% on Monday at $20.21 trading over 3.8 Million shares traded by the market close.  Akorn, a leading specialty pharmaceutical company, yesterday announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a re-inspection of its Decatur, Illinois manufacturing facility from December 5, 2016 to December 9, 2016, with no Form 483 observations.  The re-inspection was conducted to verify the implementation and effectiveness of Akorn's responses to the observations from the June 2016 FDA inspection.

Organovo Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONVO) closed up over 2% on Monday at $3.39 trading over 1.78 Million shares by the market close.  Organovo Holdings, a three-dimensional biology company focused on delivering scientific and medical breakthroughs using its 3D bioprinting technology, recently announced that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Keith Murphy is scheduled to speak at VirtualInvestorConferences.com on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) closed up over 4% on Monday at $47.84 trading 1 Million shares by the market close.  Kite Pharma announced yesterday that characterizations of T cell receptor candidates which it has licensed under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been published in the December 8, 2016 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)..

DISCLAIMER:  MarketNewsUpdates.com (MNU) is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels.  MNU is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein.  MNU and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security.  MNU's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities.  The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material.  All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks.  All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release.  MNU is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers.  Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks.  For current services performed MNU has been compensated three thousand nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press release issued by Moleculin Biotech, Inc.  by the company.  MNU HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and MNU undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

Contact Information:

Media Contact email: info@marketnewsupdates.com , +1-561-325-8757

SOURCE MarketNewsUpdates.com