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
News and Trends 1 Mar 2019 Update: Hansa Biopharma Applies for EMA Market Approval for Kidney Transplant Drug Update (01/03/2019): Hansa Biopharma (previously named Hansa Medical) has filed an application for marketing authorization for imlifidase with the EMA also for use in patients undergoing kidney transplants. Update (18/10/2018): Imlifidase has just been given Fast Track Designation by the FDA for application in transplantation. The designation should accelerate the treatment through the FDA’s regulatory process, with […] March 1, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 1 Mar 2019 This Biotech Uses Bacterial Proteins to Purify Water Faster Aquaporin is a company named after a protein that transports water molecules across a cell membrane. With these water channels, the Danish biotech is able to purify water 50% faster than conventional technology. Mission: To use water channel proteins to purify water in applications such as cleaning drinking water, desalination and industrial wastewater treatment. As […] March 1, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Feb 2019 Austrian Biotech Raises €33.2M to Fund Cancer Vaccines A Series D round of €33.2M ($37.4M) is to help the biotech Hookipa advance the clinical development of therapeutic vaccines for virus-based cancers, as well as a prophylactic vaccine for cytomegalovirus, which can infect patients undergoing organ transplants. Currently at the preclinical stage, Hookipa’s therapeutic vaccines are designed to tackle cancers that are caused […] February 28, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Feb 2019 UK Biotech Gets Huge Grant to Launch Off-the-Shelf CAR-T Cancer Therapy to Clinic The UK biotech Cell Medica has received a €7.6M ($8.7M) grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to advance an off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapy that can work not only in blood cancer but also in solid tumors. The funding will help the company to develop a special type of CAR-T cell therapy […] February 27, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email