News and Trends 7 Feb 2018 January Has Been the Best Month Ever for Biotech in Spain Biotech in Spain has kicked off 2018 setting a record for the number of acquisitions and fundraisings and their total value combined. Early in January, the Japanese big pharma Takeda announced its intention to acquire TiGenix for €520M. The cell therapy biotech was born in 2011 as a merger of Belgian TiGenix and Spanish Cellerix, […] February 7, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 7 Feb 2018 Hookipa CEO “Sleeps Quite Well at Night” with €50M Cash Pile and Cancer Vaccine Progress Did you miss us in Vienna? Here’s the first of our two interviews from the Refresh meetup last month: Jörn Aldag, CEO of Hookipa, talked to us about the importance of a sound financial strategy and where cancer vaccines are on the hype curve. Jörn Aldag has had quite a career. His first position as […] February 7, 2018 - 4 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Feb 2018 Spring Cleaning: AstraZeneca Ditches Underperforming Asthma and Cancer Candidates AstraZeneca has given up on the development of its PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor drug, which was the headline act when its subsidiary MedImmune acquired Amplimmune in 2013. There was no sentiment as pharma giant AstraZeneca cut a number of drugs from its pipeline after they did not perform as expected during clinical trials. The biggest name to get […] February 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 6 Feb 2018 Biotech Barometer: How is biotech doing on the European markets? How did biotech finish last year on Euronext? The exchange has released its report for H2 of 2017 for the 49 biotechs listed on the markets, including giants Galapagos and Ablynx and CAR-T notables Cellectis and Celyad among others. The bottom line of the biotech barometer? It was a good semester! Stock Performance & Market […] February 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Feb 2018 New Artificial Intelligence Test for Leukemia Now Available in Europe Sophia Genetics has received a CE-IVD mark for its molecular diagnostics test, which will improve the detection of leukemia. Swiss company Sophia Genetics is a leader in the field of data-driven medicine, with its artificial intelligence (AI) technology already been used to analyze the next-generation sequencing data of over 160,000 patients’ around the world. Today, the company […] February 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 6 Feb 2018 CRISPR/Cas9: Could the Gene Editing Technology be the Future of Drug Discovery? The emergence of CRISPR/Cas9 technologies has enabled almost unlimited gene editing opportunities. Not only could it be used as a therapeutic tool, the genome editing tool could kickstart a revolution in drug discovery. To date, much of the attention on CRISPR/Cas9, which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, has revolved around its potential as […] February 6, 2018 - 9 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Feb 2018 Say Hello to a New Biotech Striving to Prevent Kidney Damage During Surgery Balmes Transplantation has raised €700,000 in seed funding to run a proof-of-concept study to test its drug combination for kidney damage. Balmes Transplantation is a young biotech in Marseille, France, that develops combination therapies for a common complication associated with kidney transplants and heart surgery. The biotech has raised a €700,000 seed funding from top company executives and angel […] February 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Feb 2018 New Antiviral for RSV Lung Infections Shows Promise in Phase IIa ReViral’s candidate RV521 showed its potential for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections by reducing viral load and mucus levels. London-based biotech ReViral discovers and develops antiviral drugs, focusing particularly on the treatment of diseases caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The biotech’s candidate, RV521, has undergone a Phase IIa clinical trial during […] February 5, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 5 Feb 2018 A DNA-Based Diagnostic Company Rakes in £1.8M to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance A new molecular diagnostics company, LIG Biowise, has just closed a £1.8M Series A fundraising round in its effort to combat antimicrobial resistance. Based in Manchester, LIG Biowise, is working on a DNA-based diagnostic to catch antibiotic resistant infections early. The company has now closed a Series A of £1.8M (€2.0M), led by Hong Kong-based Phoenix Bridge, to fund […] February 5, 2018 - 1 minutemin - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Feb 2018 Deconstructing Patterns: First Science and Art Exhibition Opens at the Francis Crick Institute Deconstructing patterns, the first exhibition of its kind at the Francis Crick Institute, is the result of months of collaborations between scientists and artists. I got a chance to see it at the opening earlier this week. The new exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute puts into perspective the groundbreaking research happening in the scientists’ […] February 3, 2018 - 5 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 2 Feb 2018 The Success Rate of Clinical Trials Is Higher than We Thought Instead of less than 10% of drugs reaching the market, a new study has found that almost 15% of new compounds pass clinical trials – which still suggests that it is pretty tough. Clinical trials give us a chance to test how a new drug or therapy interacts with the body and whether it is […] February 2, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 2 Feb 2018 This French Biotech’s Software Helps Drugs to Succeed in the Clinic We’re in the French region of Alsace to visit BioNext, which develops software to help pharma and biotech companies to avoid pursuing flawed drug candidates. Mission: So far, BioNext has developed two tools that allow companies developing drugs to take a closer look at the target that they want to manipulate. Target Analysis identifies macromolecules that have specific interaction […] February 2, 2018 - 1 minutemin - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email