Lundbeck A/S is set to take over all shares of neurology specialist Longboard Pharmaceuticals Inc worth US$2.6bn to strengthen its pipeline with the Phase III 5-hydroxythyprytamaine 2C receptor super-agonist bexicaserine to treat 11 rare neurological conditions.

German diagnostics company Sphingotec GmbH has licensed its real-time kidney function test to US diagnostics giant Beckman Coulter allowing it to expand its business to the US as announced earlier this month.

Biomanufacturers must balance the development of new therapeutic modalities and reduce manufacturing costs while maintaining environmental responsibility. Efforts are centred on improving process robustness and efficiency and creating more flexible manufacturing facilities that can accommodate diverse biopharmaceutical products.

AviadoBio Ltd has cashed in €30m upfront and €20m as an equity investment from Astellas Pharma Inc for signing a licence option agreement for its Phase I/II gene therapy programme AVR-01.

Swedish clinical-stage pharmaceutical company Vicore Pharma has secured SEK100m, supported by existing and new investors. The injection of capital will allow the company to scale the clinical development of its portfolio of therapies in respiratory and fibrotic diseases.

Fab’entech, a French biopharma company, has secured a loan worth €20m from the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the HERA Invest programme, aimed at bolstering Europe’s preparedness against biological threats.

Kurma Partners announced a first closing of its new Biofund IV at €140m targeted to raise €250m to finance 16-20 life science companies.

If you want to successfully guard against future pandemics, you’re going to need a good plan – and the right kind of vaccine producers. WACKER and CordenPharma have been commissioned by the German government to prepare their mRNA vaccine production lines for a new pandemic.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) has gained significant attention since being used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. mRNA holds potential for preventing and treating many difficult-to-treat or genetic diseases, including cancers. However, its production is complex and raises challenges for researchers developing new therapies: Discover Tebubio.

Genentech, the US subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche AG, has strengthened the company’s breast cancer pipeline by pre-licensing the global commercialisation rights to Regor Therapeutics’ RGT-419B for US$850m.