News and Trends 26 Feb 2020 Bicycle Therapeutics Partners Genentech in Deal Worth €1.6B UK biotech Bicycle Therapeutics will collaborate with Genentech, now part of the Roche Group, to develop novel cancer immunotherapies and take them to market. Genentech will pay €28M upfront to Bicycle, but if discovery, regulatory and commercial milestones are met then the deal could be worth up to €1.6B for the Cambridge-based company. Bicycle’s technology […] February 26, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 26 Feb 2020 French Startup Raises €6M to Develop Cheap Single-Cell Sequencing Kits Scipio bioscience has raised €6M in a Series A round to launch cost-effective single-cell RNA sequencing kits, which could have big potential in profiling cells for research and clinical diagnostics. The round was led by M Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Merck. Other investors in the round included Seventure Partners’ seed fund Quadrivum […] February 26, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 25 Feb 2020 European Researchers to Make Light Bulbs using Bacteria A team of scientists from Austria, Spain, and Italy is working to make LED light bulbs out of proteins produced by bacteria. Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are widely seen as a key tool for making lighting eco-friendly because they are more energy-efficient than traditional bulbs. However, the coatings of these devices — designed to absorb […] February 25, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 25 Feb 2020 Update: Janssen and Maze Jump on Board Finnish Genomics Project Update (25/02/2020): Janssen and the US company Maze Therapeutics are the latest pharma companies to sign up as partners in the public-private genomics collaboration FinnGen. FinnGen’s pharma partners now total 11, including Sanofi and GSK, which joined early last year. Published 23/01/2019: Sanofi and GSK have joined up with a project collecting genomic and health […] February 25, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 24 Feb 2020 Adrenomed’s Antibody Drug Scores Hit in Phase II Septic Shock Trial German biotech Adrenomed reports that its first-in-class antibody drug adrecizumab was well-tolerated by septic shock patients and met its primary goal in a phase II trial. The company says it will release more detailed trial data in a peer-reviewed paper later in the year, but states that patients given adrecizumab, as opposed to placebo, had […] February 24, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Feb 2020 Immatics Partners GSK in Deal Worth €1B to Develop Cancer Therapies The German biotech Immatics will partner with GSK and could receive more than €1B from the big pharma for developing cancer immunotherapies based on engineered immune T-cells. Immatics will collaborate with GSK to develop two T-cell therapies that express a protein engineered to detect cancer antigens and kill cancer cells. In return, Immatics will receive […] February 20, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Feb 2020 Belgian Biotech Raises €50M to Make Gene Therapy Manufacturing Cheaper An equity investment worth up to €50M will push to market Univercells’ manufacturing technology, which is designed to reduce the costs of viral vector production for gene therapies. The investment comes from Gamma Biosciences, an investment platform supported by the US investor KKR. Gamma Biosciences aims to acquire and invest in businesses developing gene and […] February 19, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Feb 2020 OncoDNA Secures €19M to Progress Precision Cancer Treatment Technology Belgian biotech OncoDNA has raised €19M in Series B funding to further develop its cancer diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making software. The funding was led by Vesalius Biocapital, a Luxembourg-based VC investor, Swiss VC firm Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank, and Belgian VC company SFPI-FPIM. Early investors in the company such as CPH Bank also contributed […] February 18, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Feb 2020 UK Biotech Closes €50M Series A for GPCR Drug Discovery Oxford-based OMass Therapeutics has extended its Series A round by €33M to fund the spectrometry-assisted development of drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptors. OMass Therapeutics’s Series A initially raised €17M in late 2018. The new funds bring this up to €50M (£41.5M). Investors in the most recent fundraise included the UK VC firm Syncona — which […] February 17, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Feb 2020 Italian Investment Firm AurorA Science Launches to Support Early Stage Biotechs Italian technology transfer company AurorA-TT has joined forces with drug discovery companies Rottapharm Biotech and Italfarmaco to launch the biotech investment enterprise AurorA Science to support early stage biotechs. The partnership plans to invest €1–5M in each of one or two European start-ups this year. It is particularly focusing on promising biotechs in any area […] February 14, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Laura Cowen Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Feb 2020 Novozymes Launches Super Robust Yeast to Maximize Biofuel Production The Danish industrial biotech company Novozymes has announced the launch of its latest non-GM yeast technology, Innova Fit, which it says reduces biofuel production bottlenecks caused by conventional and basic yeast. Biofuels, including ethanol, are a renewable energy source being used as a replacement for fossil fuels, with substantially reduced CO2 emissions, particularly in the transport […] February 14, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Feb 2020 French Partnership Deploys AI for Antibody Drug Discovery French companies OSE Immunotherapeutics and MAbSilico are teaming up to drive the discovery of new antibody drugs using artificial intelligence. The three-year partnership will use artificial intelligence, or AI, in six programs designed to accelerate the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can target cancer and autoimmune diseases. AI can improve the efficiency of […] February 13, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email