News and Trends 24 Aug 2017 Merck Ventures Joins Series A of Brisith Biotech Using Macrophages to Fight Cancer Merck Ventures has joined the team of investors behind Macrophage Pharma, a biotech in Windsor, UK, using macrophages against cancer. Macrophage Pharma is a young biotech working on a new approach to boost the immune system’s ability to attack tumor cells. Its technology attracted £9M (€9.8M) in Series A earlier this year from the CRT Pioneer […] August 24, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Aug 2017 Update: British Biotech’s Gene Therapy for Rare ‘Bubble Baby’ Disease set on UK Fast-Track UPDATE (23/08/2017): The UK has also prioritized OTL-101 for review as a ‘Promising Innovative Medicine.’ This is the first step on the path to the Early Access to Medicine Scheme to bring it to market faster. Original Publication 24/07/2017 Orchard Therapeutics has received rare pediatric disease designation for OTL-101, a gene therapy for the treatment of […] August 23, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Aug 2017 Cancer Research UK Teams Up with London Startup in Immuno-oncology Biotecnol, based in London, has found a partner in CRUK to bring its immune-stimulating antibody into the clinic to tackle solid tumors. There will (probably) be a new immuno-oncology drug on the block soon: Cancer Research UK has gone in on London startup Biotecnol‘s antibody in a deal to bring it to an open-label Phase […] August 11, 2017 - 1 minutemin - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 9 Aug 2017 UK Cannabinoid Company Loses 9% and a Competitor after American Phase II Failure Zynerba Pharmaceuticals cannabinoid drug for epilepsy missed all of its endpoints costing the company’s stock price more than 55% — and GW Pharma 8.6%. On Monday, Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, a Pennsylvania-based biotech, announced that its transdermal cannabinoid candidate ZYN002 for refractory epilepsy with focal seizures had not met any of its endpoints in a Phase II […] August 9, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 2 Aug 2017 Scottish Biotech gets €4M from Horizon 2020 for Off-the-Shelf Cell Therapy TC Biopharm has just received the largest award of its kind to develop allogeneic gamma-delta T cell therapies for various cancers. Based in Glasgow, TC Biopharm was just selected to receive €4M from Horizon 2020 for its “off-the-shelf” gamma-delta T cell program. This grant brings the company’s fundraising total to €25M, and it’s the largest any UK […] August 2, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Jul 2017 Things are Looking Up for UK Synbio Clusters, says Report A survey of synbio startups in the last 16 years shows that the UK ecosystem is growing rapidly and approaching critical mass, says SynbiCITE. Dedicated to championing industrial uptake of synthetic biology, SynbiCITE is a knowledge center based at Imperial College London. Some of its initiatives have included opening a gene foundry last year to providing grants to […] July 28, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 26 Jul 2017 Update: Potential Breakthrough Treatment for Deadly Lung Disease Starts Phase IIb Update (26/07/2017): Verona Pharma has dosed the first patients in the PhaseIIb with RPL554 in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Results are expected in the second half of 2018. Published on 27/06/2017 Verona Pharma has secured regulatory approval in five European countries to run a Phase IIb trial with its dual PDE3/4 inhibitor in […] July 26, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Melanie De Almeida Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 25 Jul 2017 Trouble in Paradise: How Biotech is Fighting Tropical Diseases Tropical diseases are often neglected until an outbreak causes worldwide panic. Here’s how European biotech is preparing for the next one. “What we really need is a very fast and cheap way to develop vaccines,” biotech godfather Greg Winter told me earlier this year. Such precautionary measures may well be on our minds as Europe […] July 25, 2017 - 6 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 24 Jul 2017 Discussing Open Science with the Head of Translation at The Francis Crick Institute Officially opened less than a year ago, The Francis Crick Institute is already conducting top-level biomedical research, has launched two spin-outs and struck research partnerships with both AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. I spoke to the Head of Translation, Dr. Véronique Birault, to learn more about the Crick’s unique model of translation and the key for its […] July 24, 2017 - 5 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Jul 2017 Update: British Biotech Starts Phase II Trial in the Second Deadliest Cancer Update (19/07/2017): Tiziana has enrolled its first patient with refractory hepatocellular carcinoma in the Phase IIa trial with milciblib. Results are expected in the fourth quarter of 2018. Published on 24/04/2017 Tiziana Life Sciences has received approval to start Phase II in Israel with its leading compound, a CDK inhibitor targeting one of the deadliest cancers. […] July 19, 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 12 Jul 2017 British Researchers “Calm Down” Macrophages to treat Inflammation Imperial College London and Ergon Pharmaceuticals have a new enzyme target to treat inflammatory disease by reducing the activity of macrophages. Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a method to reprogram macrophages and reduce their inflammatory activity. The approach, published in Nature Communications, proved to reduce by more than half inflammation in the joints […] July 12, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email