Biotech in Belgium: news and updates

News and Trends 14 Oct 2015

Curetis IPO Launched to further expand Infectious Disease Detection in Global Market

Curetis AG, the molecular diagnostics company from the Stuttgart area (Germany), has now announced its launch of an initial public offering (IPO). Previously, this biotech has raised €63.5M to develop its Unyvero Platform for testing infectious disease, including Pneumonia and biomarkers in antibiotic resistance. This new IPO aims to further commercialize this system and expand […]

October 14, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 9 Oct 2015

Fixing the ‘Galapagos-AbbVie Disaster’ through a Cystic Fibrosis Therapy

As we reported last Monday, the AbbVie–Galapagos relationship has proven to be rather rocky as of late, with dramatic action down the NASDAQ Stock exchange. After AbbVie pulled out of the Galapagos Rheumatoid Arthritis pipeline, recent success with their joint-research in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) may kick-start the healing process. Their transport protein potentiator therapy for […]

October 9, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 29 Sep 2015

Could an Alpaca’s monoclonal antibodies be used to treat an ultra-rare blood disease?

Ablynx‘s Nanobody platform has used the smaller than human monoclonal antibodies from an alpaca to develop the phase III Orphan designated drug Caplacizumab. A phase III study ‘Hercules’ is now pioneering Caplacizumab as the first ever anti-Von Willebrand factor (vWF) nanobody for treating an ultra-rare blood clotting disorder. Caplacizumab is a pioneering monoclonal antibody (mAb) […]

September 29, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 28 Sep 2015

AbbVie abandons Galapagos phase III and stock plummets 39% (and still dropping)

What was AbbVie thinking? Backing out of a $1.4Bn deal to support Belgian biotech Galapagos’ rheumatoid arthritis candidate through its phase III, means NASDAQ stock is plummeting in value since Friday. With plans to work on its own phase II candidate instead, AbbVie is losing out on the potential of filgotinib, which will surely have […]

September 28, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 24 Sep 2015

Heart Attacks: TiGenix advances its cardiac stem-cell therapy

Belgian TiGenix NV released the phase I results of their cardiac stem-cell therapy at the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in London earlier this month. In July, TiGenix acquired the smaller biotech CoreTherapix with the AlloCSC-01 pipeline. This stem-cell therapy is for regeneration of heart muscle following a heart attack, and is currently […]

September 24, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 15 Sep 2015

Louvain-la-Neuve: A Belgian temple for success in cell therapy

Artificial three-dimensional tissues to regenerate bones and soft tissues: Novadip Biosciences’ dream is a step closer to reality after successfully closing a €28M Series A round. The spin-off of Université Catholique de Louvain coexists with Celyad and Promethera in a biotech cluster where cell therapy is the key protagonist. The financing round, led by New […]

September 15, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Lourdes Riquelme

News and Trends 18 Aug 2015

Not only Genes matter, Cellular Origin determines the Cancer Type

Cancer occurs in uncountable forms, and we are far away from understanding all the mechanisms that lead to its variety. For example, did you know that not only the mutated gene is responsible for the emerging of a certain type of cancer but also its cellular origin? That’s what researcher from Belgium and Australia just […]

August 18, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 6 Aug 2015

Now it’s Clear, AbbVie Has to Buy Galapagos’ Drug

Galapagos just disclosed new good results of its Phase 2B study in rheumatoid arthritis. The drug could be a lifesaver for AbbVie, which is facing patent lost of its most profitable drug Humira. Mechelen, Belgium-based Galapagos NV announced today that at week 24, patients treated with the selective JAK1 inhibitor filgotinib showed further improvement in signs […]

August 6, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Joachim Eeckhout

News and Trends 30 Jul 2015

UCB’s Lupus treatment breaks down in Phase III

Big disappointment for Belgian UCB. After 9 years of research, its lead candidate in Immunology, designed to treat Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, failed in Phase III. The drug was acquired from Immunomedics in 2006 and costed at least $38M. Epratuzumab is a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, developed by Immunomedics. For the […]

July 30, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 27 Jul 2015

Ablynx and MSD upgrade their €1.7Bn deal to gigantic €5.7Bn

Using camel antibodies as drugs, sounds crazy? Belgian Ablynx is exactly doing that and has been very successful so far. It’s now moving to the next step. It already signed a €1.7Bn deal with Merck & Co. in February 2014 and now upgrades it to a gigantic €5.7Bn! Ablynx is a biotech company developing Nanobodies for immune-oncology […]

July 27, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 19 Jun 2015

Celyad, the new face of Cardio3, is launching an IPO on NASDAQ

[UPDATE 19/06/2015]: Yesterday, Celyad launched its IPO on NASDAQ and the closing is expected to occur on 24 June 2015. Celyad, formely known as Cardio3, is preparing to cross the Atlantic to launch an IPO on NASDAQ. The company, which is already listed on Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels, aims to raise €103.2M ($115 million) on […]

June 19, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Lourdes Riquelme

News and Trends 9 Jun 2015

Apitope’s peptide to take on Haemophilia A

Apitope’s pre-clinical candidate ATX-F8-117 has been granted Orphan Drug Status by the US FDA for the treatment of Haemophilia A. The drug candidate already obtained an Orphan Drug Designation by the European Medical Agency last year. The compound also awakened the interest of Abzena, which works with Apitope to design the candidate. Haemophilia A is […]

June 9, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Lourdes Riquelme

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