Cell Medica, today announced the appointment of Julia P. Gregory as a Non-Executive Director and Audit Chair of the Company’s Board of Directors.

Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature, is a normal process in growth and development, as well as in wound healing and tissue granulation.

As first regulatory body in the world, the FDA has presented a market-driven reimbursement mechanism for antibiotics that may incentivise drug development in a niche market with currently low return on investment. 

Tigenix NV, a biopharmaceutical company focused on exploiting the anti-inflammatory properties of allogeneic stem cells, today announces that Eduardo Bravo will depart the board of directors and his role as CEO of Tigenix effective as of June 15, 2018.

Celonic AG has pursued an ambitious expansion strategy in mammalian cell line contract manufacturing to establish Phase III and commercial supply by mid-2019. A new GMP facility in Heidelberg was acquired, and capacity is also being expanded at the headquarters in Basel. European Biotechnology spoke with Franzpeter Bracht, COO of Celonic, about Celonic’s strategy.

Despite a 6-month improvement of 2-year-overall survival in pancreatic cancer patients, Norwegian cancer immunotherapy specialist Targovax ASA will terminate development of TG01 in this indication. Instead, development of RAS neoantigen-targeting cancer vaccines will be pushed in colorectal cancer.

Fibra-Cel Disks are an advanced, solid support material for the efficient growth of mammalian and insect cells in bioreactors. They are devised to improve the cultivation of anchorage-dependent as well as suspension cells. Fibra-Cel Disks can be used also for perfusion cell culture with the Eppendorf packed-bed impeller – available for glass, stainless steel, and single-use bioreactors.

British T cell player, Autolus Therapeutics Ltd. wants to go NASDAQ selling 7.8 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at  at least US-$15, totaling in US$117m. Through a greenshoe option, Autolus want to offer additional 1,171,875 ADS at the IPO price. 

EU Commissioners Jyrki Katainen and Carlos Moedas proposed a budget increase of 25% for the next  European Research and Innovation programme Horizon Europe (2021-27) vs Horizon 2020. However MEPs said that the new moonshot research section EIC is underfunded. Furthermore, the current funding quote of 11% was too low compared to other international excellence programmes.

Josh Muntner has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of Mesoblast. He will be based in New York.