News and Trends 7 Dec 2020 Swiss Startup Tackles Tourette’s Syndrome Despite Recent Failures In spite of recent failures of clinical trials from others in the field, Swiss company Noema Pharma is gearing up to develop better treatments for the neurological condition Tourette’s syndrome. Noema Pharma will use a recent €49M Series A round to bankroll the phase I development of a candidate for Tourette’s syndrome along with the […] December 7, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Dec 2020 EU Launches Pharma Strategy, Raising Both Hopes and Questions The public’s response has been cautious after the European Union unveiled a pharmaceutical strategy last week designed to spur domestic innovation and the production of affordable, state-of-the-art therapies. Amid a boom in biotech funding driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Commission (EC) is scrambling to bring its sometimes fragmented pharma regulatory framework up to […] December 4, 2020 - 6 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Nov 2020 uniQure Stocks Up With First Phase III Results of Hemophilia B Gene Therapy Gene therapies for the rare blood clotting disorder hemophilia B have taken a step closer to the market as Dutch developer uniQure became the first to release interim phase III results last week. Hemophilia is an inherited disease caused by mutations to genes encoding blood clotting proteins, resulting in uncontrollable bleeds. In severe cases of […] November 27, 2020 - 5 minutesmins - By Victor Kotsev Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 26 Nov 2020 AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine Proves Its Worth in Phase III A much anticipated Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, achieved 70% efficacy in phase III interim data. While less effective on paper, it could prove cheaper and easier to distribute than its most advanced competitors. Scientists and politicians heartily received the announcement of promising interim clinical trial results from the Covid-19 […] November 26, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Kostas Vavitsas Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Nov 2020 SynOx Joins Wave of Biotechs Attacking Solid Tumor ‘Comfort Zone’ The newly founded SynOx has become the latest startup to attack solid tumors via their ‘comfort zone’, known as the tumor microenvironment. SynOx was spun out of the UK firm Celleron Therapeutics last week with a huge Series A round of €37M. The fledgling company is developing an antibody drug that Celleron licensed from Roche […] November 23, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Nov 2020 Breakthroughs in Decentralized Testing Could Contain Covid-19 Hospital facilities in Europe are being pushed to their limits as the Covid-19 pandemic continues into winter. Coronavirus testing that doesn’t require a central lab is now arriving on the scene, and it could be the solution to effectively monitor and contain the disease. Despite the recent announcements of promising phase III data on Covid-19 […] November 20, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Kostas Vavitsas Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Nov 2020 mRNA Stocks Soar with Final Results of BioNTech’s Covid-19 Vaccine The field of messenger RNA therapeutics is flying high as BioNTech and Pfizer conclude a phase III trial with their Covid-19 vaccine showing 95% effectiveness. The phase III trial recruited over 43,000 volunteers to gauge whether Covid-19 infections could be prevented by a vaccine made out of messenger RNA (mRNA). One group received two doses […] November 19, 2020 - 6 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Nov 2020 Innate Immunity in Cancer Gains Recognition with Affimed’s €1.8B Deal Last week’s €1.75B deal between the German biotech Affimed and Swiss giant Roivant backs up an emerging trend of harnessing our innate immune system to treat cancer. According to the deal’s terms, Affimed will receive €51M upfront to license to Roivant a preclinical-stage antibody drug for several undisclosed types of cancer. Roivant will handle the […] November 16, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Nov 2020 Kiadis’ Natural Killer Cell Therapies Earn €308M Acquisition by Sanofi The French big pharma Sanofi has offered €308M to acquire the Dutch firm Kiadis Pharma and get hold of cancer cell therapies based on a type of immune cells called natural killer cells. The offer comes not long after Sanofi inked a deal worth up to €857.5M to license a preclinical-stage cancer cell therapy from […] November 3, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 30 Oct 2020 Bayer’s AskBio Acquisition Strong Statement For Gene Therapy in Europe This week, German big pharma Bayer announced a €3.5B takeover of Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, a well known US gene therapy specialist. This is only one of many examples of the funding windfall experienced by the gene therapy field in 2020. Despite the difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a good year for gene […] October 30, 2020 - 6 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Oct 2020 Universal Flu Vaccines Yield Second Clinical Failure This Year In a blow to hopes for better protection from seasonal flu, last week’s phase III failure of BiondVax’s universal flu vaccine follows the phase II flop of Vaccitech’s flu vaccine in January. Last week proved a major setback for the Israeli biotech BiondVax. The company’s vaccine — designed to protect against multiple strains of flu […] October 29, 2020 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 15 Oct 2020 Swiss Biotech Launches Amidst Hot Streak for Rare Autoimmune Disease Swiss biotech Chord Therapeutics launched this week with a €13.7M Series A, becoming the latest company to tackle the rare condition neuromyelitis optica, for which three therapies have been approved in less than a year. Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, previously also known as Devic disease, affect up to 2 in 100,000 people around the world. […] October 15, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email