Ex-HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson adds another biotech to his resume; Medigene OK’d for first TCR clinical trial

→ Former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson is expanding his biotech resume. Thompson has signed as a board member at New York-based Tyme Technologies, which is working on a pipeline of cancer therapies. Thompson is also chairman of TherapeuticsMD, which recently won a reversal of the FDA’s decision to reject its lead therapy and permit a full review of its marketing application.

→ Medigene AG has gained a regulatory green light to begin the first Phase I/II study of its TCR-modified T cell therapy MDG1011. “With our specific study design, we are able to evaluate our T cell therapy simultaneously in various diseases and to generate data in three hematological indications in parallel,” said Kai Pinckernell, the CMO at Medigene.

→ Bloomberg reports that J&J is scouting for potential buyers of its sterilization products division, which could be worth up to $2 billion.