The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently granted Cumberland Pharmaceuticals a patent for a new formulation of its Acedatote treatment for acetaminophen overdose. The patent award, which is effective through 2025, may not be the end of this chapter of the story, though: Cumberland last year had to fight off a number off challenges to its IP rights.

The Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics has signed a partnership agreement with global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to develop new treatments for severe obesity. The entities' combined work will be funded by both GSK and a National Institutes of Health grant and focus on the potential to deploy the melanocortin-4 receptor discovered more than a decade ago by VU professor Roger Cone.

The agreement with Vanderbilt is the second GSK has signed with a U.S. institution under its Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) program. Launched in 2011, the program joins the insight and creativity of academic scientists with GSK’s drug discovery expertise to develop innovative medicines.

The team at Sarah Cannon Research Institute are among those launching clinical trials for a promising new treatment that targets cells that start cancer tumors. The product is being developed by California-based OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, which is partnering with GlaxoSmithKline.