News and Trends 25 Sep 2020 Roche Confirms Pharma Appetite for Inflammatory Disease Treatments Roche’s acquisition of the Irish biotech Inflazome is a vote of confidence for emerging inflammatory disease drugs. How could other companies in the field benefit from this takeover? The inflammation process is essential for our survival, as it helps the body to clear up damage after injury. However, uncontrolled inflammation can also harm us, causing […] September 25, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Sep 2020 T-Cell Therapy Firm Wins Massive €93M Series A to Treat Solid Tumors The Dutch startup Neogene Therapeutics has become the second T-cell therapy developer to raise a spectacularly large Series A round in Europe this year. The Series A round was co-led by the VC firms EcoR1 Capital, Syncona, and Jeito Capital. Neogene Therapeutics will use part of the €93M proceeds to advance its T-cell therapy immuno-oncology […] September 14, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Sep 2020 Microbiome Therapies Threatened by Covid-19 Restrictions Providers of microbiome therapies worldwide have been hit by pandemic restrictions on the harvest of stool samples. Though these measures are now loosening in France, key safety challenges remain for companies using fecal microbiota. Fecal microbiota transplants — procedures where healthy individuals donate their gut microbes to a patient — have changed how we treat […] September 1, 2020 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 25 Aug 2020 What Does Unity’s Phase II Fail Mean for European Anti-Aging Research? A drug developed by the US firm Unity Biotechnology — designed to slow the aging process — recently proved a dud in phase II for the treatment of osteoarthritis. How is this high-profile setback affecting European biotechs developing anti-aging treatments? Aging is a complex, multi-faceted process that makes people vulnerable to a wide range of […] August 25, 2020 - 6 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Aug 2020 Is Hepatitis D Healthcare Being Overlooked? Despite the recent EU approval of the first hepatitis D treatment, low public awareness remains an obstacle to tackling this aggressive infection. Earlier this month, the peptide drug Hepcludex became the first drug greenlit for hepatitis D treatment in Europe. This was a conditional market authorization granted to the German company MYR Pharmaceuticals based on […] August 20, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Aug 2020 Women’s Health Gains Traction as Bayer Pays €736M for UK Firm Bayer’s recent €736M ($875M) acquisition of KaNDy Therapeutics could herald growing investor interest in women’s health – a historically neglected field in the biotech and pharma industry. Through this deal, Bayer has snapped up KaNDy Therapeutics’ first-in-class drug for treating hot flashes and night sweats, which often occur during the menopause. In a phase IIb […] August 18, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Aug 2020 CureVac Continues Covid-19 Vaccine Funding Frenzy with €180M IPO The share price of CureVac has skyrocketed almost fivefold after the Covid-19 vaccine developer priced a Nasdaq IPO at €180M ($213M). The excitement around messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against Covid-19 could also benefit other players in mRNA therapeutics. CureVac’s IPO was priced at €14 ($16) per share, giving the German company a valuation of around […] August 17, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Aug 2020 Why are Some European Biotechs Going Public Without an IPO? European biotech companies are flocking to the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2020, but not all are going the traditional Initial Public Offering (IPO) route. What does this mean for the dominance of the biotech IPO in Europe? In spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, biotech IPOs have continued unabated. In fact, a report from Bioworld found […] August 13, 2020 - 7 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Jun 2020 Update: Hyloris Raises €62M IPO to Create More Drug Delivery Options Update (29/06/2020): Hyloris Pharmaceuticals’ Euronext IPO — one of only a handful of biotech and pharma IPOs on European soil in the last 18 months — has hit the midpoint of its expected pricing range with a value of €61.8M. The shares were priced at €10.75 each, which was comfortably between the minimum target of […] June 29, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 26 Jun 2020 CSL Behring Nabs UniQure’s Hemophilia Gene Therapy for up to €1.8B Big pharma CSL Behring will pay the Dutch gene therapy developer uniQure an upfront of €400M for the global rights to a phase III-stage gene therapy for the blood disorder hemophilia B. Under the terms of the agreement, uniQure will complete an ongoing phase III trial of the gene therapy, with topline results expected […] June 26, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 9 Jun 2020 French Manufacturing Plant Launches to Make Cell Therapy Cheap and Scalable The Bordeaux-based company Treefrog Therapeutics has opened an industrial demonstration plant with the aim of producing cell therapies 10 times more efficiently than with current technology. The €2M plant occupies an area around a fifth of the size of a football field and is expected to produce 80 billion cells per year when it reaches […] June 9, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Jun 2020 What Did European Oncology Players Offer at ASCO 2020? Despite widespread clinical trial delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, many oncology biotechs have been able to continue their fight against cancer. With advances in CAR T-cell therapies, cancer vaccines, RNA drugs, and more, European companies held a strong presence at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) this year. The huge ASCO conference has […] June 3, 2020 - 10 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email