News and Trends 24 Apr 2020 Big €10M Seed Round Funds New Class of Cancer Drugs in Switzerland The Swiss biotech FoRx Therapeutics has raised an impressive €10M in seed funding to develop a new generation of drugs that target DNA repair in cancer cells. The drugs will block a DNA repair process called break-induced replication, which was discovered by the company’s scientific founder Thanos Halazonetis. This process is used by cancer cells […] April 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Apr 2020 First Volunteers Dosed with European Coronavirus Vaccine The first European vaccine for coronavirus disease to enter clinical trials has been administered to UK volunteers in a project led by the University of Oxford. One volunteer was injected with the coronavirus vaccine and another with a control vaccine yesterday in a phase I trial that aims to recruit over 1,000 participants. The trial […] April 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Apr 2020 UK Startup to Manufacture Cell and Gene Therapies with Microfluidics The UK company MicrofluidX has closed a €1.6M (£1.4 M) seed funding round to develop a microfluidic platform that could produce cell and gene therapies more cheaply than conventional cell cultures. The funding round was led by UKI2S, a national seed investment fund targeting early-stage companies, as well as Longwall Ventures and Cambridge Angels. MicrofluidX […] April 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By David Kirk Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Apr 2020 Mogrify Teams Up With Sangamo To Streamline Cell Immunotherapies The UK cell conversion startup Mogrify and the US genomic medicine company Sangamo have reached an exclusive license agreement that could allow Sangamo to scale up the production of off-the-shelf Treg cell therapies for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, Mogrify will receive an undisclosed upfront payment from Sangamo and will […] April 23, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 23 Apr 2020 Sofinnova Invests €20M in Three Italian Rare Disease Biotechs The French VC firm Sofinnova Partners has invested €20M in three Italian biotech companies via its Telethon Fund, which focuses on firms developing treatments for rare diseases. The deals by the Sofinnova Telethon Fund were made over the last several months. The companies the Fund invested in — Genespire, Epsilen Bio, and PinCell — are […] April 23, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Apr 2020 €10M Series A Boosts Cancer Immunotherapy Hitting Tumor Sugar Coating The French startup Phost’in Therapeutics has raised €10.3M to take its cancer immunotherapy drug against solid tumors into clinical trials within a year. Led by the US-Japanese venture capital firm Remiges Ventures, the Series A round also included contributions from Japanese investment firm ANRI and French private equity investor Irdi Soridec Gestion. The cash injection […] April 22, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 21 Apr 2020 Idorsia’s Drug Improves Sleep in First Phase III Trial for Insomnia The Swiss pharmaceutical company Idorsia has announced that its drug candidate daridorexant significantly improved sleep onset, sleep quality, and daytime functioning of insomnia patients in a pivotal phase III trial. The trial recruited 930 adult patients with insomnia. The company used a technique called polysomnography to measure the time taken to fall asleep and sleep […] April 21, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Karen O’Hanlon Cohrt Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Apr 2020 French Biotech Licenses Microbiome Therapeutic to Treat Mood Disorders The microbiome company LNC Therapeutics has entered into a licensing agreement to use a specific strain of gut bacteria for the treatment of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. The agreement was made with the National Research Council (CSIC) in Spain, and gives LNC Therapeutics exclusive research, manufacturing, and commercialization rights of the microbiome-based […] April 17, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Apr 2020 Is New Enzyme Technology Key to Solving Society’s Plastic Problem? A new type of enzyme developed by the French company Carbios can break down more than 90% of the plastic PET, commonly used to make plastic bottles, and the byproducts can then be recycled into new PET. But how far does this go towards solving our plastic waste problem? PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, comprises around […] April 17, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Apr 2020 Irish Biotech Raises €18M to Develop Non-Viral Cell Therapy Technology The Irish company Avectas has closed a Series C round to develop cell therapies that don’t need viral vectors — a common bottleneck in cell therapy manufacturing. The fundraise of approximately €18M brings Avectas’ total equity funding to around €37M. The round was led by the company’s current shareholders, which include the serial life sciences […] April 16, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 15 Apr 2020 Healx Deploys AI Drug Discovery Technology Against Rare Nerve Disease The AI-driven drug repurposing company Healx has teamed up with the global Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) to develop new treatments for the genetic disease neurofibromatosis type 1, right after the FDA approved the first-ever drug for the condition. In the collaboration, the UK biotech will use its AI-driven pharmacology expertise to speed a candidate drug […] April 15, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Apr 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic Bites into European Cancer Research The UK funder Cancer Research UK and Swedish oncology biotech Alligator Bioscience have independently announced cuts to payroll and research costs due to the coronavirus disease pandemic. Cancer Research UK is cutting research funding by €50M after calculating it will lose a quarter or more of its annual fundraising income — or €137m — through […] April 10, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Anita Chakraverty Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email