News and Trends 20 May 2022 Zealand Pharma’s drug for rare metabolic disease smashes phase III After a year of slumping stock prices, Zealand Pharma is striking back, as its peptide drug improved blood sugar control in infants with the rare disease congenital hyperinsulinemia in a phase III trial. In late 2020, the Danish firm Zealand Pharma A/S hit a big obstacle when its peptide drug dasiglucagon failed to treat the […] May 20, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 May 2022 Valneva’s Covid-19 Vaccine Contract in Dire Straits as EU Approval Lags The stock price of the French Covid-19 vaccine maker Valneva has been knocked down by 20% as the company faces losing a supply contract with the European Commission. Despite receiving a glowing marketing authorization from the UK’s drug regulator in April this year, Valneva is struggling to gain traction with its Covid-19 vaccine in the […] May 16, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 May 2022 The Top European Biotech Investments in April 2022 Private biotech investments in Europe were on a steady decline in April 2022 as biotech public markets continued to disappoint. The top funding rounds were dominated by UK and Swiss firms targeting genetic diseases and cancer. April 2022 provided no relief for the European biotech industry as public stock markets remain anemic. Though flush with […] May 12, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 May 2022 eureKARE Launches €150M Merger to Form Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO The French startup creator eureKARE has set up a special purposes acquisition company (SPAC) with the ambition to merge multiple European contract development and manufacturing organizations into a heavyweight serving developers of gene therapies, protein drugs, and microbiome therapeutics. Over the last few years, record levels of funding have flowed into the biotech industry, particularly […] May 10, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 May 2022 Amphista Lands Megadeals to Smash Cancer using Protein Degradation As big pharma companies flock to drugs that destroy harmful proteins, the UK protein degradation specialist Amphista Therapeutics has bagged two landmark collaboration deals with the heavyweights Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck. Big pharma companies are piling onto biotechs developing drugs that can cause the destruction of target proteins in the cell — a field […] May 5, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 May 2022 Tubulis Rides Investment Wave in ADCs with €60M Series B The German firm Tubulis has raised a €60M Series B round to advance cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to clinical trials. This takes place as the ADC space is heating up with rapid approvals and investment deals. ADCs are the product of attempts to make more selective, safer versions of traditional chemotherapy. They consist […] May 3, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Apr 2022 Denmark Recruits Lifebit to Boost Personalized Medicine with Genomics The Danish National Genome Center has teamed up with the UK firm Lifebit to improve the access and sharing of genomic data as the nation moves towards the adoption of personalized medicine. Personalized medicine is capturing the attention of healthcare authorities across the world. By harvesting genome sequences from patient populations, researchers can mine vast […] April 29, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Apr 2022 OMass Therapeutics Takes on ‘Undruggable’ Proteins with €90M Series B The UK firm OMass Therapeutics has unveiled a €90M (£75.5M) Series B financing to bankroll the development of small molecules against so-called ‘undruggable’ targets, including one that sank Quench Bio last year. In 2020, Quench Bio captured the imagination of investors with the US firm’s ambition to develop a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs. The […] April 28, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Apr 2022 Cancer Research UK Deploys €700M to Foster Oncology Startups In a show of strength after an income squeeze during the Covid-19 pandemic, the charity Cancer Research UK has dedicated €711M (£600M) to setting up a new innovation arm and seed fund designed to speed up the commercialization of oncology innovation. For decades, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) has played a pivotal role in nurturing advances […] April 27, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 25 Apr 2022 Forcefield Therapeutics Launched to Treat Heart Attacks with Protein Drugs The startup Forcefield Therapeutics has been unveiled in the UK with €6M (£5.5M) backing from the investment firm Syncona. The mission is to develop the first drugs to safeguard heart muscle from damage during heart attacks. A sudden heart attack, also known as acute myocardial infarction, happens when the flow of blood to the heart […] April 25, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Apr 2022 European Biotech Investors Brace for Volatility in 2022 After gathering huge investment funds in 2021, European biotech investors took a breather in the first quarter of 2022, with the plan to steadily fund private biotechs amid a tumultuous public market. The last two years have seen a record-breaking amount of money flowing to biotech investors, with almost €10B reaching European life science funders […] April 22, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Apr 2022 Valneva’s Covid-19 Vaccine Reaches UK Market with EU In Sights A Covid-19 vaccine developed by the French company Valneva has received the green light from the UK’s drug regulator. The EMA, meanwhile, is proving harder to convince. The UK’s relationship with the French vaccine developer Valneva has run hot and cold over the past two years. In 2020, the UK government invested in Valneva’s manufacturing […] April 20, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email