News and Trends 19 Apr 2017 UPDATE: Verona sets terms & dials back its IPO goal to a still-hefty €75M UPDATE: Verona set the terms for its US IPO yesterday and knocked $10M (€9.3M) off its target, now shooting for $75M (€70M). The public shares are expected to hit the NASDAQ exchange next week. Original Publication 04/04/2017 British Verona Pharma has filed for an IPO on Nasdaq to raise up to €81M ($86M). The funds should be […] April 19, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Apr 2017 Two Big Pharma Players Team up to Take Over the NASH Space Allergan has entered a clinical collaboration with Novartis to run a Phase IIb study combining its immunomodulator and Novartis’ FXR agonist for NASH. After Allergan snapped up Tobira’s cenicriviroc (CVC) last year in a €1.4B deal, the company is now taking the next step to advance its pipeline in the Non-Alcoholic SteatoHepatitis (NASH) race. The pharma company is going […] April 18, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 14 Apr 2017 This Norwegian Biotech Aims to Unlock the Full Potential of Cancer Drugs This week we visited the Norwegian PCI Biotech. Based in Oslo, this company has developed a light-sensitive technology, which allows to activate cancer drugs at specific sites of the body by targeted illumination. Mission: PCI Biotech focuses on the development of new therapies for the treatment of cancer based on its photochemical internalisation (PCI) technology. The PCI technology consists of a photosensitising […] April 14, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Apr 2017 Swiss Pharma Clears €37M Funding to Develop a New Class of Antibiotics Swiss Polyphor has closed a €37M (CHF40M) private funding round to finance the development of its most advanced candidate tackling antibiotic resistances. Polyphor is a clinical stage pharma developing a specific class of so called ‘macrocyclic drugs‘, which are chemically defined by a ring structure. The company’s pipeline is covering a broad range of diseases such as […] April 12, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 12 Apr 2017 Video Interview: How Morphosys Grew Into a Billion-Euro Biotech At our first, but for sure not last meetup in Munich last Monday, Philip had the pleasure to have a chat with Simon Moroney, CEO and co-founder of the biggest biotech in Germany, Morphosys. Their topics ranged from Morphosys’ current pipeline and previous failures to the immuno-oncology hype and company culture. Morphosys started out with its […] April 12, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Apr 2017 French Microbiome Startup Gets a Series A Funding Boost to Regulate Appetite The French biotech startup TargEDys has extended its series A funding initiated in April 2016 by €3.5M to accelerate the development of its pipeline. After raising an initial €5.8M in a series A funding round from big names like Seventure Partners, TargEDys has now raked an additional €3.5M from the Zaluvida group. The company has also appointed Christoph […] April 11, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Apr 2017 Illumina Enters Europe to Take Over the Prenatal Diagnostics Market Illumina has launched its NGS-based non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) in Europe and is ready to position itself as the top dog in this competitive market. The US next-generation sequencing (NGS) giant Illumina has launched its VeriSeq NIPT Solution in the EU today. It’s an NGS-based kit that allows for rapid testing of the fetal chromosome status using a single maternal […] April 11, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Apr 2017 The Biggest European Medtech Exit of 2017 Just Happened The medtech company Symetis, specialized in heart valve replacements, today announced its acquisition by Boston Scientific in a hefty €411M ($435M) deal. Symetis is a Swiss medtech company and one of the key players on the European transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) market. After launching a promising €55M IPO on Euronext Paris in March, the company has now […] April 10, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Apr 2017 Evotec and Sanofi Hit the First Milestone for a Diabetes Cell Therapy Evotec and Sanofi have achieved preclinical proof-of-concept for a new beta cell therapy for diabetes, triggering a €3M milestone payment from Sanofi. In 2015, Sanofi and the German CRO Evotec partnered to jointly develop a beta cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes in a deal that could reach more than €300M in potential milestone payments. […] April 6, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Apr 2017 Biotech Targeting Tau-Tangles in Neurodegeneration Initiates Clinical Trials Swiss Asceneuron has received regulatory approval to start its first Phase I trial of ASN120290, which is indicated for the treatment of dementia. Asceneuron was founded in 2012 as a spin-off of Merck Serono’s Alzheimer’s drug discovery portfolio. Its key asset ASN120290 is an inhibitor of the O-GlcNAcase enzyme and is indicated for the treatment of diseases associated […] April 6, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Apr 2017 UPDATE: Norwegian Stock Exchange hits Record Biotech IPO UPDATE (06/04/2017): BerGenBio has raised €43.55M, successfully beating a biotech record on the Norwegian stock exchange and setting its market cap at €135M. UPDATE (28/03/2017): BerGenBio has announced that the IPO could run up to €44M on Oslo Børs. It could become the Norway stock exchange’s biggest IPO in biotech, and indeed €44M would make it […] April 6, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Apr 2017 Heptares Takes Home €11M for its Next-Generation Checkpoint Inhibitor Heptares Therapeutics has achieved a new milestone in its immuno-oncology collaboration with AstraZeneca triggering an €11M payment from AstraZeneca. Heptares has announced the wrap-up of its preclinical programme for a new checkpoint inhibitor, AZD4635 that reverses adenosine-mediated T cell suppression and enhances anti-tumor immunity. The British company will now receive an €11M ($12M) milestone payment from AstraZeneca, who obtained exclusive global rights […] April 5, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email