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
News and Trends 15 Sep 2021 UK Startup Surfs Investment Wave in Microbiome with €18M Series A As increasing attention turns to microbiome-based therapeutics, the Scottish biotech Enterobiotix has closed a Series A fundraising to potentially treat a myriad of medical conditions by improving gut health. Last week, EnteroBiotix raised €18M (£15.5M) in Series A funding to further develop a pill to restore the patient’s gut microbiome to a healthy state using […] September 15, 2021 - 4 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Sep 2021 The Top European Biotech Funding Rounds in August UK and German companies led the European biotech funding race in August, specializing in cell therapy, diagnostics, and RNA-based treatments. With summer in full swing, August was a quieter month than July in terms of European biotech funding. Private biotechs in Europe and Israel — in addition to those going public in an initial public […] September 10, 2021 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Sep 2021 As J&J Vaccine Fails Phase II, the Quest for an HIV Vaccine Continues Johnson & Johnson became the latest company to have a failed vaccine trial against HIV last week. While it was a great disappointment to many, efforts continue in this space, helped by recent Covid-19 vaccine advances. HIV has been around for decades. While antiretroviral treatments have improved enormously, turning what was once a death sentence […] September 8, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 2 Sep 2021 AC Immune’s Mixed Phase II Results Buoy Alzheimer’s Research An Alzheimer’s disease drug developed by AC Immune and Genentech has drawn conflicting phase II results this week, raising tentative hopes for the field of treatments targeting the protein tau. For decades, the major culprit responsible for Alzheimer’s disease was suggested to be the buildup of a protein called amyloid-beta in the brain. Blocking this […] September 2, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Sep 2021 Slow-Release Jab for Child Growth Hormone Deficiency Gets FDA Nod The FDA has given the green light to Danish company Ascendis Pharma for the first slow-release formulation that provides a weekly alternative to daily injections for children with growth hormone deficiency. For decades, patients with growth hormone deficiency have required tedious daily hormone injections to stave off the effects of the rare condition, including slow […] September 1, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Aug 2021 UK Venture Round Shines Spotlight on Europe’s Psychedelics Scene The UK has cemented its position as a European hub for psychedelics research following a €68.5M ($80M) Series B round from the startup Beckley Psytech. The Oxford-based Beckley Psytech — founded in 2019 to develop psychedelic treatments for neurological conditions — had originally set the target of its venture capital financing at €43M ($50M). Earlier […] August 24, 2021 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith 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 17 Aug 2021 Sanofi’s Translate Bio Buyout Shows Growing Hunger for mRNA Technology Sanofi’s acquisition of its partner Translate Bio is a clear sign that pharmaceutical companies are interested in messenger RNA technologies beyond Covid-19. Based in Boston, US, Translate Bio develops mRNA therapies for a range of conditions, including respiratory, liver, and infectious diseases. The company’s €2.7B ($3.2B) buyout, announced by Sanofi earlier this month, seems a […] August 17, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Mark Zipkin Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Aug 2021 European Biotechs Fire up Deals to Develop Parkinson’s Treatments Last month, European biotechs Ipsen and AC Immune announced multi-million euro deals to acquire or license treatments for Parkinson’s disease. For some experts, this increasing interest in the brain disease with the fastest growing prevalence is long overdue. In July, Swiss company AC Immune bought assets and intellectual property for investigational Parkinson’s vaccines valued at […] August 12, 2021 - 4 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Aug 2021 The Top European Biotech Funding Rounds in July Nordic biotechs yielded some of Europe’s biggest biotech funding rounds in July, as did developers of cultured meat and other protein alternatives. July saw a continuing buzz of biotech fundraising activity in Europe. In the venture capital arena, the investors Sofinnova and Panakès Partners closed new funds to target life sciences companies, including those in […] August 10, 2021 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Aug 2021 Artios’ €129M Series C Pushes Limits of DNA Repair in Cancer The UK firm Artios Pharma raised a huge Series C round last week in one of many efforts to develop cancer drugs that target the DNA repair systems of our cells. Artios Pharma bagged €129M (£110M) last week in a venture capital round led by the US-based firms Omega Funds and TCG X. The proceeds […] August 6, 2021 - 4 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email