News and Trends 24 Oct 2018 UK Microbiome Company Gets Financial Boost for Live Bacterial Therapy UK-based Microbiotica has received a £4M investment from Seventure’s fund dedicated to investments in the microbiome space. With Seventure coming on board as a new investor, Microbiotica has now raised a total of £12M since its foundation in 2016. The company, a spin-out of the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, seeks to find and exploit precise […] October 24, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Oct 2018 15-Minute Cardiovascular Blood Test to Sell Across Europe French diagnostics company Magnisense has raised €5M to expand the sales of its emergency tests for heart attack and heart failure, which can be performed at home in just 15 minutes. The diagnostic technology developed by Magnisense, called MiAG, uses magnetic nanoparticles to detect extremely low quantities of cardiovascular biomarkers in the blood. “MiAG allows […] October 24, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Oct 2018 Microbiome Biotech Enterome Signs Deal With Takeda Worth up to €600M The French biotech Enterome and Takeda are teaming up to fight Crohn’s disease, with a deal worth up to €600M. The two companies will collaborate in the development and commercialization of Enterome’s lead microbiome-targeting treatment currently in Phase I trials. Under the terms of the deal, Takeda will pay Enterome €44M upfront, and up to […] October 23, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 23 Oct 2018 Bridging the Academia-Industry Divide: Lessons from a Serial Biotech Entrepreneur What does it take to be a successful biotech entrepreneur? I put this and other similar questions to Dinko Valerio, a highly experienced Dutch geneticist turned serial entrepreneur and investor. While there are many great scientists, it takes a certain something to be able to cross over into industry and build a profitable business. Dinko […] October 23, 2018 - 8 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Oct 2018 Innate’s Cancer Immunotherapy Combo Beats Standard Treatment Twofold A combination cancer immunotherapy from French biotech Innate Pharma was twice as effective at treating recurrent squamous cell carcinoma as standard therapy in a Phase II trial. Squamous cell carcinoma is a head and neck cancer that forms lesions in the mucous membranes of body cavities such as the mouth, nose and throat. “Patients are […] October 22, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Oct 2018 Spanish Biotech Partners Gilead to Develop Functional HIV Cure AELIX Therapeutics and Gilead will run a clinical trial testing a combination of treatments that has potential to let HIV-infected people ditch lifelong therapy. The trial, which will run in Spain, is planned to start in early 2019 and will recruit around 90 patients in the early stages of HIV infection. After receiving the […] October 19, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 19 Oct 2018 This Biotech Spins Silk That Can Repair Nerves We fly to Lomazzo, Italy, this week to visit Silk Biomaterials. As the name implies, the company is testing different medical applications of silk, such as in nerve repair. Mission: Founded in 2014, Silk Biomaterials uses silk as a scaffold material for medical applications such as vascular grafts and peripheral nerve repair. In many tissue […] October 19, 2018 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 18 Oct 2018 Phase III Triumph for Topical Hormonal Acne Treatment The Italian biotech Cassiopea reports good news for acne sufferers. Its hormonal anti-acne treatment Winlevi significantly helped to reduce acne in two Phase III trials. Winlevi, when applied to the skin, cleared the acne in more than twice as many participants with moderate or severe acne as placebo. The treatment also showed good safety results […] October 18, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Oct 2018 Belgian Firm Will Develop Antibiotic Alternatives for Industrial Biotech Using CRISPR Syngulon will be developing antibacterial peptides using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology thanks to an agreement with ERS Genomics, which licenses out CRISPR intellectual property in the EU. CRISPR technology is a hot topic in the biotech industry because it makes gene editing faster and easier than other techniques. This could make it very useful in […] October 17, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 17 Oct 2018 The EU Patent of the Best Selling Drug Has Expired, What Does it Mean for Biotech? AbbVie’s Humira, a treatment for inflammatory disease and the world’s best-selling drug, is no longer patent-protected in the EU. Competitors are already taking advantage of it. Humira is an antibody drug, called adalimumab, that has been topping the lists of best-selling drugs for years. Last year alone, it made over €15B in sales worldwide. The […] October 17, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 16 Oct 2018 Drug Combination for Rare Genetic Nerve Disorder Nails Phase III A treatment developed by French biotech Pharnext has become the first clinically proven therapy for a rare genetic disorder that affects the nervous system. In a Phase III trial, the treatment reduced the level of disability of patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a condition that affects peripheral nerves. This disease causes problems with walking, running and […] October 16, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Oct 2018 Cancer Immunotherapy Biotech Raises €34M on Nasdaq Stockholm The Swedish biotech Immunicum has issued shares worth up to almost €34M on Nasdaq Stockholm, in an effort to accelerate the development of its cancer immunotherapy. Immunicum plans to use most of the funding to run a Phase Ib/II clinical trial that will test its lead cell therapy candidate in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to […] October 16, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email