News and Trends 10 Jul 2020 Life Sciences Fund Launches with €76M to Invest in Nordic Biotech Stockholm and Copenhagen-based Eir Ventures has announced the closure of its first fund at €76M, which will be used to invest in biotechs and other life science companies, with a focus on the Nordics. The fund is backed by Saminvest, a venture capital company founded by the Swedish Government; Vækstfonden, the Danish state’s investment fund; […] July 10, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 9 Jul 2020 €18M to Fund First-in-Class Systemic Sclerosis Drug One of the largest biotech placements in the Nordic countries this year will accelerate the development of a first-in-class drug for chronic inflammation conditions such as systemic sclerosis that lacks the cardiovascular risks of current medications such as aspirin. Swedish biotech Gesynta Pharma raised €18.2M (SEK 190M) in a placement supported by returning investor Industrifonden […] July 9, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Jul 2020 Osivax Raises €32M to Develop Universal Coronavirus and Influenza Vaccines Osivax, a Lyon-based biotechnology company, secured €17.5M from the European Innovation Council and €15.1M from Bpifrance. The funding will be used to develop vaccines that protect from all current – and even future – flu and coronavirus outbreaks. Most current vaccines have a specific target protein they work against. They train the immune system to […] July 8, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Kostas Vavitsas Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Jul 2020 Remdesivir Becomes the First Covid-19 Treatment Approved in Europe Remdesivir has received a one-year conditional marketing authorization from the European Commission due to the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected at least 2.5 million people in Europe, and killed more than 500,000. The intravenous drug, manufactured by US pharma company Gilead Sciences, is intended for adults and children over the age of […] July 8, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Jul 2020 UK Launches Clinical Trial Platform to Speed up Covid-19 Drug Development Researchers in the UK have set up a drug testing platform to bridge the gap between preclinical testing and large-scale trials for drugs being tested to treat Covid-19. The AGILE platform is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit that aims to speed […] July 7, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Jul 2020 Hansa Biopharma Gets up to €350M to Make Gene Therapy Work in Resistant Patients Hansa Biopharma has granted an exclusive license to Sarepta Therapeutics for developing and promoting a pretreatment aimed to make a gene therapy to treat muscular dystrophy available to people that are naturally resistant to the treatment. Gene therapy can be used to treat genetic conditions by delivering a healthy copy of the faulty gene using […] July 7, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Antara Mazumdar Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Jul 2020 Dutch-Swiss Team to Fight Milk Fraud with Onsite DNA Testing Microfluidics company DigiBio and food security specialist SwissDeCode have joined forces to automate onsite milk testing and track down fraudulent adulterants such as vegetable ingredients or milk from different species. Milk is the second most likely food at risk of adulteration after olive oil. This fraudulent practice can mislead consumers at best, and cause major […] July 7, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Manuela Callari Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 6 Jul 2020 How Immuno-Oncology Contributes to the Fight Against Covid-19 As the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps the world, cancer research is proving a valuable resource for developing new treatments for infectious diseases by harnessing the power of the immune system. Despite the growing number of viral outbreaks of different sizes and severity we have observed in the past years, the infectious disease market is far behind […] July 6, 2020 - 7 minutesmins - By Maya Chergova Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Jul 2020 CRISPR Therapeutics Announces Huge €400M Public Fundraise The Swiss firm CRISPR Therapeutics has priced a public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market at around €400M, which it will use to develop therapies based on the gene editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 for genetic disorders and cancer. This fundraise is the second-highest global share offering from a European biotech so far this year after the […] July 3, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Jul 2020 Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Shows Phase I Promise A vaccine made out of messenger RNA (mRNA), developed by the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, has produced antibodies against the Covid-19 pathogen in healthy volunteers. The results come from an interim analysis of an ongoing phase I clinical trial in 45 participants. So far, all test subjects who received two […] July 3, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 2 Jul 2020 Freeline Closes €106M Series C to Progress Hemophilia Gene Therapy UK biotech Freeline Therapeutics has extended its Series C round to take its gene therapy for hemophilia B to a pivotal trial, while hinting at the possibility of an IPO in the US later this year. This final closing adds an additional €70M to a €36M Series C investment by London-based VC Syncona in December […] July 2, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Reports 2 Jul 2020 Guidelines for Biotechs: Managing Risks in Biological Drug Development Navigating the complexity of the industry can be highly challenging for early-stage biotechs focusing on biological drug development. Once they have a robust strategy in place and have chosen a suitable partner, biotechs face other hurdles in upstream process development, manufacturing, IND filing, and regulatory processes. Discover how to address challenges and manage risks throughout […] July 2, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Larissa Warneck-Silvestrin Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email