News and Trends 28 Apr 2020 AskBio Takes Over French Gene Therapy Company to Treat Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s The Paris-based BrainVectis, a biotech developing gene therapies for Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, has been acquired by the US clinical-stage gene therapy company AskBio. AskBio’s gene therapy experience and manufacturing capacity will help to accelerate BrainVectis’ lead candidate for Huntington’s into phase I testing. In return, AskBio gets to expand its list of target […] April 28, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By David Kirk Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Apr 2020 Anti-Aging Treatments at Forefront of Astellas’ €80M UK Acquisition Japanese pharma giant Astellas has acquired the UK biotech Nanna Therapeutics for up to €80M (£69.5M) in a deal to boost the development of drugs for unspecified age-related conditions and mitochondrial diseases. Through the acquisition, Astellas gains access to Nanna’s drug discovery technology, which focuses on drugs that target the mitochondria, the energy-producing machinery in […] April 28, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By David Kirk Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Apr 2020 Series A Round Boosts Swedish Synthetic Biology Player by €6.4M The Swedish synthetic biology company EnginZyme has raised a Series A funding round to the tune of €6.4M to develop its cell-free synbio technology for the sustainable production of plastic, rubber, and other synthetic materials. The latest investment, which was led by French venture fund Sofinnova Partners, brings EnginZyme’s total funding to more than €10M […] April 27, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Karen O’Hanlon Cohrt Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Expert Advice 27 Apr 2020 5 Ways to Become a Successful Biotech Entrepreneur Having a good enough idea to found a biotech is one thing, but being able to make a success of a company in the long run is something else entirely. Here are five tips to help you on your way to becoming a successful biotech entrepreneur. Are you working in a biotech but considering becoming […] April 27, 2020 - 9 minutesmins - By Letícia Manosso Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Apr 2020 Big €10M Seed Round Funds New Class of Cancer Drugs in Switzerland The Swiss biotech FoRx Therapeutics has raised an impressive €10M in seed funding to develop a new generation of drugs that target DNA repair in cancer cells. The drugs will block a DNA repair process called break-induced replication, which was discovered by the company’s scientific founder Thanos Halazonetis. This process is used by cancer cells […] April 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Apr 2020 First Volunteers Dosed with European Coronavirus Vaccine The first European vaccine for coronavirus disease to enter clinical trials has been administered to UK volunteers in a project led by the University of Oxford. One volunteer was injected with the coronavirus vaccine and another with a control vaccine yesterday in a phase I trial that aims to recruit over 1,000 participants. The trial […] April 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Apr 2020 UK Startup to Manufacture Cell and Gene Therapies with Microfluidics The UK company MicrofluidX has closed a €1.6M (£1.4 M) seed funding round to develop a microfluidic platform that could produce cell and gene therapies more cheaply than conventional cell cultures. The funding round was led by UKI2S, a national seed investment fund targeting early-stage companies, as well as Longwall Ventures and Cambridge Angels. MicrofluidX […] April 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By David Kirk Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Apr 2020 Mogrify Teams Up With Sangamo To Streamline Cell Immunotherapies The UK cell conversion startup Mogrify and the US genomic medicine company Sangamo have reached an exclusive license agreement that could allow Sangamo to scale up the production of off-the-shelf Treg cell therapies for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, Mogrify will receive an undisclosed upfront payment from Sangamo and will […] April 23, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Apr 2020 Sofinnova Invests €20M in Three Italian Rare Disease Biotechs The French VC firm Sofinnova Partners has invested €20M in three Italian biotech companies via its Telethon Fund, which focuses on firms developing treatments for rare diseases. The deals by the Sofinnova Telethon Fund were made over the last several months. The companies the Fund invested in — Genespire, Epsilen Bio, and PinCell — are […] April 23, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Apr 2020 €10M Series A Boosts Cancer Immunotherapy Hitting Tumor Sugar Coating The French startup Phost’in Therapeutics has raised €10.3M to take its cancer immunotherapy drug against solid tumors into clinical trials within a year. Led by the US-Japanese venture capital firm Remiges Ventures, the Series A round also included contributions from Japanese investment firm ANRI and French private equity investor Irdi Soridec Gestion. The cash injection […] April 22, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 21 Apr 2020 Idorsia’s Drug Improves Sleep in First Phase III Trial for Insomnia The Swiss pharmaceutical company Idorsia has announced that its drug candidate daridorexant significantly improved sleep onset, sleep quality, and daytime functioning of insomnia patients in a pivotal phase III trial. The trial recruited 930 adult patients with insomnia. The company used a technique called polysomnography to measure the time taken to fall asleep and sleep […] April 21, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Karen O’Hanlon Cohrt Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 20 Apr 2020 How Has Coronavirus Affected Europe’s Biotech Stocks? The information flow about the coronavirus pandemic is truly electrifying, with big public market swings in the life sciences industry. That said, exactly what sort of impact is the disease known as Covid-19 having on biotech stocks? In the last few months, the Covid-19 pandemic situation has rocked the stock markets, causing intense swings across […] April 20, 2020 - 12 minutesmins - By Carlos de Rojas Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email