Zelluna Immunotherapy has announced the appointment of Geir Christian Melen as chief financial officer (CFO).

Big Pharma’s interest in R&D on anti-infectives declined when other areas like oncology began offering higher returns. A few biotechs mirror pharma (Basilea, Idorsia and Polyphor), but could stay hidden gems.

AstraZeneca plc has extended its immunoncology pipeline by an extension of its partnership with French Innate Pharma SA.

French Enterome SA has added a second licence agreement with Takeda to its deal portfolio, projecting possible payments of US$640m.

The European Medicines Agency delays the EU approval of Nivolumab/Ipilimumab in NSCLC and greenlights four biotherapeutics to be marketed in the EU.

Industrial biotech innovations, presented in at the 11th EFIB in Toulouse, could become the key enabler set to save our planet if supported appropriately.

As the global demand for injectables grows, so does the demand for innovative delivery systems. For lyophilised forms, dual-chamber systems offer advantages. They have been on the market since the mid-1980s, mainly for emergency or chronic medication. The systems have been developed for the convenience of the patients/caregivers, but they also offer benefits for the pharma/biotech companies in regards to low residual volume and increased API yield.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies has impressed Amgen with its genetic sequencing technology. The US biopharma major has invested £50m in the Oxford-based company.

In a Series B financing round, INSERM spin-off Acticor Biotech has raised €15.3m from European and Asian investors. The new financing will go towards the launch off the first Phase II clinical trial of its lead candidate ACT017 in acute ischemic stroke. 

Multinational biotherapeutics company HiFiBiO Therapeutics announced that it has taken over early stage biotech H-Immune Therapeutics. With the acquisition of the French Atomic Energy Commission spin-out, HiFiBiO aims to strengthen its strategic focus on targetting differenct T cell subsets and combat cancer.