News and Trends 20 May 2019 UK Immune Cell Therapy Biotech Founded with €40M Series A Quell Therapeutics, a London-based biotech developing immune cell therapies to target transplant rejection and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, launched today with €40M series A funding. UK life sciences trust Syncona is the lead investor, with a €38.8M stake in the company. Syncona will own a controlling 69% of the business, reflecting their large initial investment. […] May 20, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 May 2019 Update: British RNA Biotech Increases Series A to €34M Update (20/05/19): Storm Therapeutics has increased its series A financing round by an additional €16M (£14M) to €34M (£30M), which the company plans to use to advance its pipeline of RNA focused drug candidates towards the clinic. Seroba Life Sciences, an Irish VC focusing on new and innovative therapies, is the key new investor. Existing […] May 20, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 15 May 2019 €25M European Loan to Fund Diagnostics Tackling Antibiotic Resistance The Finnish biotech Mobidiag has received a loan of €25M from the European Investment Bank to commercialize diagnostic technology aimed at reducing antibiotic resistance. When patients get a bacterial infection, clinicians have to wait several days for traditional diagnosis techniques to tell them what kind of bacteria is causing the infection. While they wait, the […] May 15, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 May 2019 RNAi Therapy Smashes Solid Tumors in Preclinical Tests Developed by the UK biotech Celixir, a therapy based on silencing genes with RNA molecules in a process called RNAi has shrunk tumors by 50% in culture. Although there are lots of innovative cancer treatments in the market, such as CAR T-cell therapy for blood cancer, solid tumors remain difficult to tackle. For this reason, […] May 14, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 May 2019 First Potential Gene Therapy for Hemophilia B Restores Blood Clotting in Phase II A gene therapy developed by the Dutch biotech uniQure increased the activity of a blood clotting protein enough to stop bleeds in patients with the blood disorder hemophilia B. Hemophilia B is a rare genetic condition in which patients have a mutation in the blood clotting protein factor IX (FIX), reducing its activity below 6% […] May 14, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 May 2019 ‘Guided Missile’ Cancer Immunotherapy Boosted by €62M Funding The Swiss-Italian biotech company Philogen has raised a private round of €62M to fund the phase III development of cancer immunotherapies that deliver immune cell-stimulating molecules directly to the tumor site. The money will push Philogen’s two lead cancer programs, currently in phase III, to the market. The funds will also help to expand the […] May 13, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 May 2019 Cell Encapsulation Biotech Raises €7M to Target Cell Therapy Bottlenecks The French company Treefrog Therapeutics has raised over €7M in Series A investment to develop its encapsulation technology to improve the production of stem cells for cell therapies. Part of the Series A money will help Treefrog to automate its stem cell production process by 2021. The round will also fund the development of a […] May 13, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 May 2019 Swiss Biotech Halts Pneumonia Antibiotic Trial After Patient Safety Scare Polyphor has temporarily halted two phase III trials of an antibiotic treating pneumonia, after an unexpectedly high number of patients reported kidney problems in one of the trials. The phase III trial was testing the antibiotic murepavadin in 150 enrolled patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia, and who required mechanical breathing. The patients in the treatment group […] May 10, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 May 2019 Schizophrenia Treatments Could be Tested and Personalized Using Patients’ Blood Scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed a way to screen treatments for schizophrenia on single cells from a patient’s blood sample, which could speed up drug discovery and help to personalize treatments for people with the condition. Around 21 million people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia, and this is likely to get worse with […] May 8, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 May 2019 Belgian Biotech Raises €30M Series A to Unlock Undruggable Targets Confo Therapeutics has raised €30M in a Series A round that will take its unique technology to find drugs for historically undruggable targets to clinical trials. The fundraising was led by the VCs BioGeneration Ventures and Wellington Partners, and joined by several other private and public investors. With the money, Confo Therapeutics aims to […] May 7, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 May 2019 Molecules in Bee Jelly Could Protect Whole Nests Against Viruses for Generations A research team has discovered that honeybees pass molecules of RNA to each other by sharing it in edible jelly, which could lead to vaccines that can stop generations of bees from dying from viral infections. Honeybees don’t just give us honey. As the dominant pollinators of lots of food crops, around a third of […] May 6, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 May 2019 Drug Mopping Up Bacterial Toxins Shows Potential to Tackle Antibiotic Resistance in Phase I An antibiotic-enhancing drug developed by the Swiss biotech Combioxin to tackle antibiotic resistance showed promising effects in a phase I trial. Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem around the world, causing common infections such as pneumonia to become harder to treat. As standard antibiotics become less and less effective, we urgently need to find new […] May 3, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email