According to Bloomberg, the US biotechnology giant Amgen plans to buy Horizon Therapeutics at a valuation of about $26bn. Overall, the deal corresponds to an enterprise value including debt of $28.3bn. This would be the largest acquisition in the company’s history.
Biotechnology was dramatically rewarded in the financial markets through much of 2020 and the first half of 2021, widely credited for providing the COVID-19 vaccines. This followed four already exceptional years in the financial markets, with the Nasdaq Biotech Index (NBI) hitting its all-time high of 5449.32 on 30 August 2021.
Step Pharma intruduces promising data on the potential of a selective cancer treatment by inhibition of CTPS1 with their inhibitor STP938.
The partnering event BioFit2022 took place in Strasbourg, France on November 29th and 30th as well as online on December 7th and 8th. It reflected on challenging times in the pandemic, survivors of the economic threats, and adressed the preparation and perseverance needed to deal with challenges today and in the future. The bottom line: dynamic partnerships and more financing opportunities on the horizon.
The French company Standing Ovation uses precision fermentation to create the protein that gives cheese its unique properties. With his pitch, co-founder and CEO Frédéric P’ques took the prize at the start-up pitch of the Industria Biotech.
Sino Biological and Ainnocence have joined forces to establish an AI-enabled platform for antibody affinity maturation.
Valneva has appointed Dipal Patel as new Chief Commercial Officer and Management Board member.
With a new expansion coming online in Copenhagen, AGC Biologics is offering more capacity in Europe for mammalian biologics projects using innovative single-use bioreactor technology. This is the latest in a string of new investments from the global CDMO to expand capacity and upgrade technology at its sites in Europe, Japan and the United States.
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed perception of the value of rapid vaccine production, followed by multi-billion investments across the globe. While nanomedicines are receiving attention for enhancing stability and targeted activity of APIs, their broad availability currently suffers from the same production bottleneck as mRNA vaccines. Leon-nanodrugs, a pharma technology company, is developing a disruptive approach to unlock high-speed vaccine production.
Vienna is one of Europes most dynamic innovation hubs in the life sciences. End of September, the life science community met to celebrate LISAvienna. For 20 years, LISAvienna has been acting as the clusters central point of contact. In close collaboration with Austrias support and funding ecosystem, the platform accompanies and supports bioentrepreneurs through the ups and downs of their journey to transfer innovative business ideas into viable products and services.