News and Trends 7 Jan 2022 French Project to Tackle Antibiotic Resistance with Biotech and Economics A team of French organizations led by the biotech firm Antabio has launched a €17M project to deploy therapeutic, diagnostic, and economic innovations in the battle against antibiotic resistance. The project, dubbed ARPEGE, involves four partners covering a variety of disciplines: the antibiotics developer Antabio; the diagnostics heavyweight bioMérieux; the university hospital group Hospices Civils […] January 7, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Oct 2021 DNA Manufacturing Startups Net Venture Capital Windfalls Touchlight Genetics and DNA Script have closed major venture financing rounds in the last month as investor excitement mounts over the next generations of DNA manufacturing. DNA Script made a big splash in Paris this week as it raked in €142M in Series C funding. The company will ramp up the commercialization of its benchtop […] October 28, 2021 - 6 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 26 Oct 2021 Valneva’s Inactivated Covid-19 Vaccine Aces Phase III Trial Last week, the French vaccine maker Valneva announced promising phase III trial results of its inactivated Covid-19 vaccine: a well-established technology that could confer broader immunity to the virus than shots currently on the market. Valneva’s vaccine candidate consists of a killed or ‘inactivated’ version of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19. The vaccine was […] October 26, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Oct 2021 Gene-Edited T Cell Therapy Players Battle Safety Doubts Confidence in gene-edited T cell therapies from donor cells has faltered as Allogene Therapeutics paused all clinical development following the detection of an unexpected genetic change in a clinical trial. Industry experts see these events as a reality check for the nascent field. Off-the-shelf treatments that use genetically engineered T cells to treat diseases suffered […] October 22, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Aug 2021 Chikungunya Vaccine First to Succeed in Phase III Trial In a significant step in the fight against tropical disease, the mosquito-borne viral disease chikungunya may become preventable with a new vaccine candidate from French biotech Valneva that just passed phase III trials. The results of the phase III trial revealed that a single dose of the live attenuated vaccine developed by Valneva induced the […] August 19, 2021 - 3 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Jul 2021 Microbiome Medicines Could Power Up CAR-T Cell Therapies The microbiome could pave new cancer immunotherapy inroads for European biotechs, bolstered by preclinical findings that gut bacteria metabolites may help CAR-T cell therapies penetrate and kill solid tumors. A recent study conducted by researchers at Philipps-University Marburg, University Hospital Würzburg, and the Leeds-based company 4D Pharma showed that metabolites produced by the gut bacteria […] July 28, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Mark Zipkin Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 May 2021 Avantium and Carbios Capitalize on Growing Bioplastics Demand As the EU phases out a wide range of single-use plastics this year, investor interest is steadily increasing for adopting easily recyclable or bio-based plastics. In recent weeks, European biotechs Carbios and Avantium have taken big steps towards meeting rising demand. With millions of tons of plastic waste littering the ocean floors, truly solving our […] May 18, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Sep 2020 Microbiome Therapies Threatened by Covid-19 Restrictions Providers of microbiome therapies worldwide have been hit by pandemic restrictions on the harvest of stool samples. Though these measures are now loosening in France, key safety challenges remain for companies using fecal microbiota. Fecal microbiota transplants — procedures where healthy individuals donate their gut microbes to a patient — have changed how we treat […] September 1, 2020 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Jul 2020 Update: DNA Script Raises €80M to Bring Rapid DNA Synthesis to the Lab Update on 29/07/2020: DNA Script has increased the total raised in its Series B round to €80M ($89M). The additional funds will support the commercial launch of the company’s benchtop DNA printer, which is designed to allow same-day DNA synthesis directly in the lab bench. The company is planning to launch a beta testing program […] July 29, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Jul 2020 Biological Fungicide Clears Wheat of Rust Disease in European Field Trial A fungicide derived from amoeba has proven effective at protecting wheat from rust disease and other major fungal diseases at bay. Developed by French company Amoéba, this product could provide an eco-friendly solution to a growing problem in agriculture worldwide. Every year, over 5 million tons of wheat are lost to rust disease globally, which […] July 27, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Kostas Vavitsas Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Jul 2020 Osivax Raises €32M to Develop Universal Coronavirus and Influenza Vaccines Osivax, a Lyon-based biotechnology company, secured €17.5M from the European Innovation Council and €15.1M from Bpifrance. The funding will be used to develop vaccines that protect from all current – and even future – flu and coronavirus outbreaks. Most current vaccines have a specific target protein they work against. They train the immune system to […] July 8, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Kostas Vavitsas Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Apr 2020 €10M Series A Boosts Cancer Immunotherapy Hitting Tumor Sugar Coating The French startup Phost’in Therapeutics has raised €10.3M to take its cancer immunotherapy drug against solid tumors into clinical trials within a year. Led by the US-Japanese venture capital firm Remiges Ventures, the Series A round also included contributions from Japanese investment firm ANRI and French private equity investor Irdi Soridec Gestion. The cash injection […] April 22, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email