British T cell receptor specialist Immunocore Ltd will receive a US$40m investment from the the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  to develop immunotherapies that fight tuberculosis and HIV.

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After having set up a R&D hub for the biomanufacturing of clinical trial supplies in Gdansk, Polpharma is expanding its European footprint with a €100m investment in Warsaw. Several take-overs previously made the company a one-stop shop for biomanufacturing. European Biotechnology spoke with Federico Pollano, Director Contract Manufacturing and Business Development at the CDMO and bio­similars maker, about Polpharma’s strategy and expansion of biologics production. 

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) published the results of its September meeting.

The European Medicine Agency’s CHMP has rejected a type II extension application to Santhera Pharmaceutical’s coenzyme Q10 analogon idebenone (Raxone) as treatment for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Raxone was approved under exceptional circucumstances in September 2015 to treat visual impairment in patients with the rare eye disease LHON.

Artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Sophia Genetics SA (St. Sulpice, Switzerland) raised US$30m in a series D round to foster global expansion of its cancer diagnostics annotation platform SOPHiA AI.

Two research team independently report they have identified specific microbes in the gut of mice and of treatment-naive patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) regulating immune responses. Phase I trails with fecal microbial transplants (FMT) are scheduled to begin early next year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has extended its Next Generation Sequencing Companion Dx Center of Excellence Programme (COEP) in Europe. The next-generation sequencing (NGS) provider added a second agreement with the Institute of Pathology Heidelberg (IPH) to its growing COEP portfolio. On the same day, Merck KGaA announced it will partner with Project Data Sphere LLC to jointly lead the Global Oncology Big Data Alliance (GOBDA). 

A comprehensive sustainability assessment carried out by nova-Institute shows that first and second generation bioethanol is feasible for the EU’s climate strategy. The study challenges the politically hyped "tank or table" paradigm that valued biofuels unsustainable due to competition to food production.

Progress in process engineering and media optimisation has resulted in significant productivity increases in upstream processing driving transformations at drug developers and CDMOs. At BPI Europe in Amsterdam, companies showed strategies and product launches pinpointing the way towards what could become a new industry paradigm: continuous processing and flexible modular production plants, which both address changed production needs.

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