News and Trends 7 Jun 2022 Athersys to restructure – 70% of workforce to go U.S. biotech company Athersys, Inc. has announced a corporate restructuring plan to reduce costs and prioritize its lead clinical programs. In connection with the restructuring, the company is reducing its workforce up to 70%, with most of the reduction expected to be completed by the end of June 2022. The company said this initial step […] June 7, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 31 May 2022 Evotec adds cell therapy manufacturing facility through Rigenerand takeover German headquartered life science company Evotec SE has acquired 100% of the capital of Rigenerand Srl, an Italian cell technology company, for €23M ($24.7M). Founded in 2009 as a spin-off of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, Rigenerand is based in Medolla, Italy, about 100 km south of Evotec’s Campus Levi-Montalcini in […] May 31, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Jan 2022 Ori Biotech Bags €88M Investment to Automate Cell Therapy Manufacture The UK company Ori Biotech has raised €88M ($100M) in Series B cash to ease the cell therapy manufacturing bottleneck using automation and standardized data collection. The round was 40% oversubscribed and led by the US investment firm Novalis LifeSciences. The Chinese investor Puhua Capital and Chimera Abu Dhabi joined the existing syndicate, which includes […] January 18, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Jan 2022 Europe Trailed US Despite Record Gene and Cell Therapy Funding in 2021 Cell and gene therapy developers globally raised an all-time annual record in 2021. However, European firms missed out on the funding growth. Companies around the world developing cell and gene therapies raised €20.1B ($23.1B) over 2021, said the advanced therapy advocacy organization the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) in a briefing this week. This bumper […] January 14, 2022 - 6 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Jan 2022 The Top European Biotech Investments in December December 2021 ended with a bang for biotech funding in Europe and Israel, with cultured meat and cell therapy startups attracting the biggest investment rounds. Biotech companies in Europe and Israel capped off 2021 with a very strong month of fundraising. Collectively, private companies and those launching initial public offerings (IPOs) banked almost €1.6B in […] January 5, 2022 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Opinion 3 Jan 2022 Distributed Manufacturing of Cell Therapies Poses a Threat to Big Pharma As medical institutions develop the infrastructure for decentralized manufacturing of cell therapies, they are positioned to outperform big pharma’s limited success with a centralized approach to manufacturing. A revolution is coming in the discovery, development and delivery of living medicines. This revolution is being led by well-funded, elite academic medical centers, such as the University […] January 3, 2022 - 5 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 22 Dec 2021 The Biggest European Biotech News of 2021 In spite of the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the European biotech industry has emerged stronger than ever this year. These were the key moments for the sector in 2021. The year 2021 has seen skyrocketing fortunes for many European biotech players. Investment firms, for instance, raised far more funding than in 2020, which […] December 22, 2021 - 10 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Nov 2021 Investors Flock to Startups Reprogramming Cell Therapies Painstaking and expensive procedures are required to produce human cells for use in research and cell therapies. Investors are seeking stakes in cell reprogramming startups that can free up the bottleneck, such as Mogrify, bit.bio, and Asgard Therapeutics. The concept of cell reprogramming — converting one type of cell into another — has been hot […] November 22, 2021 - 7 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Nov 2021 Skilled Labor Shortages Impact Cell And Gene Therapy Manufacturing Despite vast amounts of funding entering the cell and gene therapy field, the manufacture of these therapies is held back by skill shortages. Increasing training programs and automation could form the solution. The cell and gene therapy fields enjoyed their best-ever funding yield in the first half of 2021, with €12.2B ($14.1B) netted globally. However, […] November 4, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty 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
Interview 13 Oct 2021 Thinking About Risk Early on Is Key for Cell Therapy Success For cell therapy to become mainstream, important issues such as management of risk and quality control need to be addressed, argues Duncan Borthwick, Global Marketing Manager at cell therapy manufacturing firm Solentim. Research and development of cell therapies, along with other advanced medicines like gene therapies, has increased exponentially over the last few years. According […] October 13, 2021 - 7 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Sep 2021 Cell Therapy Firm Raises €64M to Revolutionize Manufacturing This week’s €64M Series B fundraise from the French firm TreeFrog Therapeutics is the latest in a thriving movement to make the manufacture of gene and cell therapies easier and cheaper. Cell and gene therapies offer huge potential to treat a wide range of diseases including cancer, neurological, and genetic diseases. They have even shown […] September 17, 2021 - 8 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email