Quantro: Seed capital by Evotec and Boehringer

Germany’s Evotec SE and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund have acquired equal minority stakes in Quantro Therapeutics GmbH, a recently established research-based biotech company based in Vienna. Evotec also entered into a comprehensive partnership with the Austrian start-up, that strives to discover and develop novel therapeutics interfering with disease-causing transcriptional programmes in cancer and other diseases. The Germans will provide hit identification services for Quantro’s proprietary anti-tumour projects.

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Sourcing reference products

A biosimilar is a copy version of an approved, original biological medice whose patent protection has expired. The development strategies for biosimilar product and a new biological entity (NBE) differ in many ways.

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European Greens fight over a revision of EU GMO law

An impulse paper of a green splinter group has ignited a storm in the water glass. Like industry and science lobbyists, the renegades are calling for changes to the EU’s legal GMO framework.

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BioProfile FLEX2

BioProfile FLEX2 combines Nova’s groundbreaking MicroSensor Card technology with optical measurement and freezing point osmometry for an automated and comprehensive cell culture analyzer that eliminates chemistry sensor maintenance, increases analyzer speed, and reduces sample volume.

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Go 3D with BIOFLOAT

BIOFLOAT™ coatings from faCellitate provide a highly defined, fully inert cell- and protein-repellent surface.

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Targeting coronaviruses

Viennese APEIRON Biologics AG raised €17.5m to expand ongoing Phase II trials of its
coronavirus-specific drug candidate APN01 in Europe to the US and Russia. The recombinant angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (rhACE2) mimics the receptor on the human cells that coronaviruses are using to infect these cell. Preclinical and clinical data demonstrate that APN01 is well-tolerated and can stop the overshooting host immune responses that are triggered by virus proliferation.

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The road to recovery goes via vaccines and antibodies

If reopening the economy after the prolonged shutdown was the end of the beginning, then the successful development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies has the potential to be the beginning of the end.

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COVID-19: Siemens’ assay outperforms antibody tests from competitors

In a Public England Health study, Siemens Healthineers’ COV2T antibody test was the only assay found to meet both sensitivity and specificity requirements of the MHRA.

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AMR: Big Pharma sets up US$1bn Fund

After leaving the field of antimicrobials 20 years ago because other areas offered better returns, 23 pharma companies and the Novo Foundation have launched a US$1bn fund to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

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VarmX bags €32m in Series B round

Leiden-based coagulant developer VarmX NV has closed a €32m Series B financing to push clinical development of VMX-C001, a venom-based modified recombinant Factor X.

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