News and Trends 11 Mar 2019 Danish Biotech to Develop CRISPR-Based Microbiome Treatments SNIPR Biome has raised €43M in Series A funds to develop treatments that precisely target ‘bad’ bacteria using CRISPR gene editing, while keeping the rest of the patient’s microbiome intact. Founded with €2.6M seed investment from the Lundbeck Foundation in 2017, SNIPR Biome was the first exploratory investment for the Danish organisation’s Emerge fund, which […] March 11, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Mar 2019 Monthly Injection Proves as Good as Daily Pills Against HIV in Phase III Two phase III trials conducted by ViiV Healthcare have concluded that a monthly injection of two anti-HIV drugs is as effective as the standard daily treatment taken by people infected with HIV. The results showed that, after 11 months, the monthly treatment achieved virus suppression levels of over 90% and similar to those of conventional […] March 11, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 11 Mar 2019 The Three Steps Needed to Fully Automate the Artificial Pancreas New advances in diabetes research are making it possible to develop a fully automated insulin delivery system that can control blood sugar without any input from the patient. This so-called artificial pancreas could be here within the next decade, but there are still three main challenges that scientists have to address to get us there. […] March 11, 2019 - 11 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 11 Mar 2019 The Man Behind Next-Generation Sequencing Nick McCooke shares the story behind the invention of next-generation sequencing at Solexa and his latest adventure in the sequencing world with the company DNA Electronics. Nick McCooke led the pioneer team at Solexa that invented next-generation sequencing, a technology to read DNA at high speed that is nowadays used worldwide and has laid the […] March 11, 2019 - 9 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Mar 2019 HIV Drug Shows Promise for Treating Ulcerative Colitis Patients A small molecule drug, developed by the company Abivax for treating HIV, has also shown promise for patients with the inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis, reducing the disease severity consistently for over six months. Abivax tested the drug on patients with moderate-to-severe cases of ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel condition that causes rectal bleeding and […] March 8, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Mar 2019 Flu Resistant to Antivirals? This Biotech Has a Drug for That We are visiting the medieval German city of Tübingen this week. It hosts the biotech Atriva Therapeutics, which is developing antiviral drugs for influenza that can circumvent drug resistance. Mission: To make antiviral drugs that, unlike conventional drugs, target the host cell instead of the virus. This can prevent the virus from building resistance to […] March 8, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Mar 2019 Second Patient Achieves HIV Remission After Bone Marrow Transplant to Treat Cancer For the second time in history, an HIV-positive patient with blood cancer has achieved HIV remission following a customized bone marrow transplant to treat their cancer from an HIV-resistant donor. The HIV-positive patient received a bone marrow transplant to treat the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma, from which he also suffered. The researchers used this cancer […] March 6, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Mar 2019 Seventure Continues Microbiome Investment Success with Second Fund After the success of the world’s first fund dedicated to companies in nutrition, digital health, and the microbiome, the French venture capital firm Seventure Partners has completed the first closing of a second microbiome fund, which is expected to total €200M. The fund is the successor to Seventure’s Health for Life Capital fund, which was […] March 5, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 5 Mar 2019 5 Biotech Industry Challenges the EU’s Horizon Program Plans to Tackle While the EU’s Horizon funding program is more often associated with academic research, a sizeable proportion of its funds are invested in the European biotech industry. With a new stage of the program being close to launch, I investigated some challenges for the industry that it hopes to solve. Beginning in 2021, Horizon Europe is […] March 5, 2019 - 9 minutesmins - By David Cox Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 4 Mar 2019 Swiss Biotech Raises €8.8M to Progress Regenerative Stroke Treatment The Swiss company NovaGo has raised €8.8M (CHF 10M) in Series A funding to develop one of the first therapies to help the nervous system regenerate after a stroke. Novago develops antibodies that inhibit Nogo-A, a key molecule that stops nerve cells from growing new connections in the adult brain and spinal cord. This lets […] March 4, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Mar 2019 Biogen Acquires UK Biotech Developing Gene Therapy for Blindness The big US biotech Biogen has agreed to acquire Nightstar Therapeutics for €773M ($877M), including Nightstar’s candidate gene therapies for inherited blindness. Expected to be complete by mid-2019, Biogen’s acquisition of Nightstar bags it the UK company’s most advanced program. Currently in phase III, the therapy targets choroidemia, an incurable genetic condition which causes progressive […] March 4, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Mar 2019 Rapid Response mRNA Vaccine Facility Gets €30M Funding An mRNA vaccine facility, run by the German biotech CureVac, has received a €30M development grant to rapidly manufacture vaccines for regions hit by outbreaks of rabies, yellow fever and emerging diseases. CureVac is a company that develops vaccines made of mRNA, a molecule that lets cells translate genes into proteins. The company’s drug candidates […] March 1, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email