News and Trends 28 Apr 2022 OMass Therapeutics Takes on ‘Undruggable’ Proteins with €90M Series B The UK firm OMass Therapeutics has unveiled a €90M (£75.5M) Series B financing to bankroll the development of small molecules against so-called ‘undruggable’ targets, including one that sank Quench Bio last year. In 2020, Quench Bio captured the imagination of investors with the US firm’s ambition to develop a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs. The […] April 28, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 May 2019 Belgian Biotech Raises €30M Series A to Unlock Undruggable Targets Confo Therapeutics has raised €30M in a Series A round that will take its unique technology to find drugs for historically undruggable targets to clinical trials. The fundraising was led by the VCs BioGeneration Ventures and Wellington Partners, and joined by several other private and public investors. With the money, Confo Therapeutics aims to […] May 7, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Oct 2017 British Biotech Founder Receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 Richard Henderson, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017, founded Heptares Therapeutics to apply his Nobel-winning technology to discover new medicines. This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for the development of cryo-electron microscopy. This technology, now widely used in structural biology labs, is considered a stepping […] October 5, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 2 Oct 2017 Meet the Young CEO of a PCR Workflow Automation Company He is a young entrepreneur with a fast growing company. His software for the automation of PCR results interpretation in research laboratories has had a rocket start. Here’s his story! “I was looking for an internship for my bachelor’s degree in computer science…” His story starts like so many others, but unlike most it took […] October 2, 2017 - 7 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 26 Sep 2017 Belgian Biotech Teams Up With Lundbeck to Collaborate on Drug Discovery Confo and Lundbeck have joined forces to push through drug discovery against a tough-to-target protein using Confo’s special technology. Confo Therapeutics develops small antibody fragments, ‘Confobodies’, that stabilize G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Although Lundbeck has the exclusive license to commercialize compounds from the collaboration, Confo would receive up to €5M in technology fees, plus milestone payments and royalties depending on […] September 26, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Sep 2017 Allergan Takes to the Clinic a New Alzheimer’s Drug from a €3Bn Deal Allergan’s partner Heptares Therapeutics has dosed the first patient with a GPCR drug to treat major symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. A year ago, Allergan signed a massive deal of up to €3Bn with Heptares Therapeutics for the development of drugs that target G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a protein superfamily that currently comprises the target of around […] September 1, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 17 Jul 2017 Pinning Down Elusive Targets: Interviewing the Co-Founder & CSO of Heptares Heptares is expanding into a range of indications with its GPCR platform. I caught up with CSO & co-founder Fiona Marshall to hear more about the strategy. Fiona Marshall has always worked on G-protein coupled receptors, or GPCRs for short. These entities are key to many eukaryotic signaling pathways, and because of their prevalence, they’re […] July 17, 2017 - 6 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 May 2017 MorphoSys’ First Lanthipeptide Completes Phase I Successfully UPDATE (19/05/2017): MorphoSys has announced the completion of the Phase I study with MOR107, which has proved safe and showed dose-dependent pharmacokinetics. The drug, an agonist of the angiotensin II receptor type 2 (AT2-R), comes from the Dutch Lanthio Pharma and is the first lanthipeptide in MorphoSys’ pipeline. Originally published 21/02/2017 Lanthio Pharma has initiated a […] May 19, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 May 2017 Heptares receives €4.5M Milestone for New Migraine Drug Candidate The UK biotech attacking notoriously evasive GPCRs has discovered a small molecule that could be used to treat migraine headaches. Heptares, owned by Sosei and based just outside London, will take home €4.5M ($5M) from Teva for discovering a drug candidate for migraine treatment. The small molecule is an calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) agonist that could relieve patients […] May 18, 2017 - 1 minutemin - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Apr 2017 Heptares Finds New GPCR Target to Treat Pain, Cancer and Inflammation Heptares Therapeutics has published the detailed structure and mechanism of action of a difficult-to-target GPCR protein with great therapeutic prospects. Heptares Therapeutics has published today in Nature new insights into the mechanism of action of antagonists of the protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2), a molecule involved in metabolism and inflammatory responses. The study is part of […] April 27, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Feb 2017 Young Belgian Biotech will tackle Fibrosis with a New Grant Confo Therapeutics has received a €1.6M grant to support the discovery of drugs against fibrosis, one of the most deadly conditions in Western countries. Confo Therapeutics is a young biotech in Brussels developing a unique technology to target historically undruggable G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The company just announced it received a €1.6M grant from Flanders Innovation & […] February 1, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 31 Jan 2017 New British Biotech-Academia Alliance takes on Cardiovascular Disease Heptares Therapeutics and the University of Cambridge have partnered to investigate a novel target for cardiovascular diseases. Heptares Therapeutics, based in London, develops drugs against historically undruggable G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The company has now announced a new research collaboration with the University of Cambridge focusing on a specific GPCR, the apelin receptor. Heptares will support a […] January 31, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email