It’s no easy task to develop medications that are effective and safe to use. The pharmaceutical industry loses billions every year due to safety-related attrition during the drug discovery process. For both patients and companies, improving productivity in the area would bring significant benefits. Now novel biomarkers designed to better detect and manage drug-induced organ injury – both preclinically and clinically – could make the process faster, safer and cheaper. tg

German pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim has taken over Swiss cancer immunotherapy player AMAL Therapeutics.

French microalgae specialist Microphyt has raised €28.5m to develop its microalgae portfolio for nutrition and cosmetics.

Healx, a Cambridge, UK, technology company developing treatments for rare diseases, today announces the appointment of Dr Neil Thompson, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).

French biotech Osivax has raised €8m to fast-track development of its lead flu vaccine candidate – and branch out to Belgium.

Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical Company active in the discovery and development of T-cell redirecting cancer immunotherapies, today announced that Harpreet Singh has been appointed the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

It is one of the largest single private funding rounds a biotech company in Europe has ever pulled off. German biotech BioNTech managed to raise US$325m (€290m) in an upsized Series B round to boost its immuno-oncology pipeline.

Biophytis has priced its IPO on Nasdaq Paris. The company aims to raise up to €10.8m to advance its lead drug candidate under development for the treatment of neuromuscular diseases.

German biotech group Evotec has once more launched a spin-off: Breakpoint Therapeutics GmbH is focusing on treating cancer patients by targeting DNA damage responses.

A new collaboration aims to the urgent fight against antimicrobial resistant bacteria. Lyon-headquartered biotech Nosopharm has teamed up with German drug discovery company Evotec SE to develop a novel antibiotics class.