News and Trends 3 Sep 2019 UK Biotech’s Personalized Immunotherapy gets €110M Series B Boost The UK company Achilles Therapeutics has raised €110M (£100M) to test its personalized cancer cell immunotherapies in humans for the first time. The large Series B round will fund two phase I/IIa clinical trials of Achilles’ preclinical immunotherapy which are expected to start this year: one in non-small cell lung cancer and the other in […] September 3, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 30 Aug 2019 This Biotech Develops Epigenetic Drugs to Fight Brain Cancer Nestled in the historic city of Uppsala, Sweden, Beactica is fighting the brain cancer glioblastoma by targeting mechanisms controlling the expression of cancer cell genes. Mission: Develop first-in-class drugs for brain cancer that block a protein called lysine-specific demethylase 1 that helps cancer cells to divide and grow. Beactica targets glioblastoma, a highly aggressive brain […] August 30, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Aug 2019 HiFiBiO’s €60M Series C to Fund Cancer and Autoimmune Disease Antibody Drugs The French biotech HiFiBiO has raised €60M in a Series C round to finance the development of antibody drugs for cancer and autoimmune diseases based on its single-cell screening technology. HiFiBiO will use the money to accelerate the progress of its drugs to clinical trials, though it has not specified when it plans to begin […] August 29, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Aug 2019 Off-the-Shelf Kidney Cancer Immunotherapy More Than Doubles Recovery in Phase II An off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapy developed by the Swedish biotech Immunicum has eradicated kidney tumors in 11% of treated patients compared with just 4% of patients given standard treatments in a phase II trial. Immunicum is developing a cell immunotherapy to treat metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This advanced form of kidney cancer is particularly hard to […] August 29, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Aug 2019 Type 1 Diabetes Immunotherapy Shows Promise in Phase I An immunotherapy designed by the Belgian biotech Imcyse to prevent type 1 diabetes has shown signs of clinical benefits and no major safety issues in a phase I trial. The phase I trial recruited 41 patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Imcyse injected the patients with different doses of its treatment and monitored the […] August 28, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Aug 2019 Celgene and Immatics Sign Deal Worth Over €1.35B to Develop Cancer Immunotherapies The US company Celgene has obtained options to three cancer immunotherapy programs from the German biotech Immatics in a deal worth more than €1.35B ($1.5B). Immatics is to receive an upfront payment of €67.5M ($75M), along with up to €455M ($505M) in developmental milestones and royalties for each immunotherapy program. In each program, Immatics will […] August 28, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Aug 2019 Swedish Ulcerative Colitis Treatment Makes Phase II Comeback InDex Pharmaceuticals’ ulcerative colitis drug candidate has achieved positive phase IIb results, suggesting work to improve its dosage after a previous phase III failure was successful. The Swedish company tested different doses of the small molecule drug cobitolimod against a placebo in patients with the inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis. The 213 patients in the […] August 27, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Aug 2019 First Potential Chlamydia Vaccine Shows Early Promise A vaccine targeting the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia, which would be the first of its kind if approved, has proved safe and able to stimulate the immune system in a phase I trial. In the phase I trial, the vaccine was injected into 35 healthy women. Blood samples from the volunteers were then measured to […] August 16, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 16 Aug 2019 This Biotech Fights Alzheimer’s Disease by Targeting Support Brain Cells It’s time to go to London, UK, this week. The UK biotech AstronauTx is developing drugs that could slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease by aiming at star-shaped cells in the brain called astrocytes. Mission: To develop small molecule drugs targeting astrocytes, whose inflammatory activity is linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease […] August 16, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 15 Aug 2019 Swiss Scientists Upgrade CRISPR to Edit Many Genes at Once A research group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, has made it possible to edit hundreds of genes at once with CRISPR gene editing. CRISPR gene editing has revolutionized the biotech industry by providing an easy and quick way to genetically modify organisms. So far, however, CRISPR techniques have only managed to edit a maximum of seven […] August 15, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Aug 2019 Engineered Skin Shows Potential to Treat Burns in Phase I Engineered skin tissue, developed as a regenerative medicine by the UK-US pharma company Mallinckrodt, has reduced the need for skin grafts in burns victims in a phase Ib trial. The phase I trial tested Mallinckrodt’s engineered skin treatment in 29 patients suffering from deep second degree burns. Patients with these burns have damage to the […] August 14, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Aug 2019 AskBio Acquires Scottish Biotech to Make Gene Therapies More Precise The US company AskBio has acquired the Edinburgh-based Synpromics to pool their gene therapy technologies and produce inducible gene therapies that target particular organs or cells. AskBio specializes in developing viral vectors that carry gene therapies into cells, such as adeno-associated virus, whereas Synpromics develops DNA sequences called promoters that drive the expression of gene […] August 13, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email