Interview 4 Sep 2019 Overcoming Clinical Setbacks to Fight Insect-Borne Diseases Sometimes things don’t go your way in the biotech industry. The CEO of Valneva, Thomas Lingelbach, shared his experience of migrating from big pharma to biotech, and how his first biotech company weathered phase III failures to develop vaccines for neglected diseases. Once confined to the less developed regions of the world, many insect-borne diseases […] September 4, 2019 - 9 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Sep 2019 Gyroscope Targets Age-Related Blindness with €55M Series B UK gene therapy biotech Gyroscope Therapeutics has secured €55.4M in Series B funding to target age-related macular degeneration. Life sciences investor Syncona, which is backed by the UK’s Wellcome Trust, continued its support of the company contributing €52.7M to the round. This brings its total investment in Gyroscope to €90M since the biotech was founded […] September 3, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
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
In Depth 2 Sep 2019 How the DIY Diabetes Community Made the Artificial Pancreas Possible Six years ago, his three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. This led Milos Kozak, a software developer from Prague, to join the DIY diabetes community. “After the diagnosis, I started to look for some solutions because I was really disappointed by the technology available on the market for diabetes,” Kozak told me. That’s […] September 2, 2019 - 8 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández 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
Best in Biotech 26 Aug 2019 15 Bioart Exhibitions to Check Out This Fall The beauty and complexity of biology makes it a fascinating subject for artists to explore. Here are 15 bioart exhibitions to check out that bask in the frontier of art and science. Science and art are often presented as opposites. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Creativity is essential for science to progress. […] August 26, 2019 - 8 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Aug 2019 Two-Drug HIV Therapy Given Every 2 Months Proves Effective in Phase III An experimental HIV therapy being developed by GSK spinoff ViiV Healthcare in partnership with Janssen has proven it is as effective when given every two months as when given once a month. “For the first time since the AIDS epidemic started more than 30 years ago, our study has demonstrated that it is possible to […] August 22, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email