News and Trends 21 Jan 2020 German Biotech Raises €11M to Regenerate Liver Damage Biotech company HepaRegeniX has raised a Series B round that will allow its first candidate drug for liver disease to enter clinical trials later this year. Based in Tübingen, Germany, HepaRegenix was founded in 2017 with a €9M Series A round. The same investors are now taking part in a Series B round […] January 21, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Jan 2020 Medical Gel Prepares to Enter Clinical Trials for Replacing Corneal Transplants An international collaboration involving researchers in Europe, Asia, and North America has begun preparations for testing in humans a therapeutic gel that could replace the need for corneal transplants for the treatment of blindness. Corneal transplants are the most common treatment for blindness caused by corneal injury. However, donor shortages and high costs make it […] January 20, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Jan 2020 DNA Data Storage Project Receives €20.7M from US Intelligence Agency A DNA data storage project, involving French biotech DNA Script, has been awarded a contract worth up to €20.7M from the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity agency to develop a prototype instrument able to store and retrieve 1 terabyte of information in 24 hours. The Molecular Encoding Consortium, led by Robert Nicol at the Broad […] January 18, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Jan 2020 International Collaboration on Brink of Resurrecting Northern White Rhinos An international collaboration called BioRescue has taken a step forward in bringing back the Northern White Rhino with the creation of three embryos, which it hopes to bring to term in a surrogate in the coming months. The BioRescue team, including researchers based at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Germany, extracted egg […] January 17, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Jan 2020 Biotech Investment Firm Jeito Capital Launches with €200M Fund The French investment firm Jeito Capital has launched this week with a €200M fund that will support up to 15 drug-development start-ups with a focus on European companies. Jeito Capital is the brainchild of Rafaèle Tordjman, whose background in medicine and research as well as investment in life sciences led her to setting up the […] January 16, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Jan 2020 BioNTech Expands Cancer Portfolio With US Biotech Acquisition German cancer specialist BioNTech will acquire US T-cell therapy biotech Neon Therapeutics in a deal worth €60M, both to expand its cancer therapy pipeline and establish a US base. The deal is expected to complete in the second half of 2020, after which Neon will operate as a subsidiary of BioNTech. BioNTech has arguably scooped […] January 16, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 15 Jan 2020 Adaptimmune to Take Off-The-Shelf CAR-T to Phase I with Astellas The UK biotech Adaptimmune Therapeutics has inked a deal worth up to €806M with Japanese Astellas Pharma to complete phase I trials of candidate off-the-shelf T-cell therapies for cancer including CAR T-cell and TCR therapies. According to the deal, Adaptimmune will collaborate with Universal Cells, a subsidiary of Astellas. The partners will aim to identify […] January 15, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Jan 2020 Update: Horizon Discovery to Offer Partners Precise CRISPR Gene Editing Update (14/01/20): Horizon Discovery will offer partners access to a precise version of CRISPR gene editing technology it has licensed from researchers at Rutgers University in the US. After a year of research and development, the UK biotech has incorporated the base-editing technique into its drug discovery platform and will use it to develop better […] January 14, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Jan 2020 Bluebird Bio Launches First Gene Therapy for Beta Thalassemia in Germany The US company bluebird bio has launched the first gene therapy for the blood disorder transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia in the EU, with a hospital in Germany becoming its first qualified treatment center. Bluebird bio’s gene therapy, branded as Zynteglo, was given conditional market approval by the EU in June 2019. It was the first gene […] January 14, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Jan 2020 KaNDy’s Menopause Treatment Tackles Hot Flashes in Phase II A non-hormonal menopause treatment that targets the brain’s ‘thermostat’, developed by the UK company KaNDy Therapeutics, has significantly reduced hot flashes and improved quality of life in postmenopausal women in a phase IIb trial. The 199 women recruited into the study were experiencing a minimum of seven hot flashes per day. After 12 weeks of […] January 13, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Jan 2020 Eyevensys’ Gene Therapy for Blindness Boosted with €27M Series B The French company Eyevensys has raised €27M to fund the launch of a phase II trial for its lead candidate, a non-viral gene therapy for an eye condition called uveitis that can lead to blindness. The Series B round was led by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund. New investors to Eyevensys in this round included […] January 10, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 9 Jan 2020 Emergex Vaccines Secures €10M to Advance Synthetic Vaccine Development The UK biotech Emergex Vaccines has raised over €9.9M in a Series A funding round, which will allow it to progress the development of vaccines against diseases such as dengue, influenza, and Ebola to phase I clinical trials. Emergex specializes in the development of ‘set-point’ vaccines, which company CEO and co-founder Thomas Rademacher describes as […] January 9, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email