At the end of the TWB Start-up day, which was attended by more than 200 biotech professionals, two industrial biotechnology companies were awarded prizes worth €50,000.

BioNTech SE has announced it is going to ship the first containers for mRNA malaria vaccine production from this year’s end toKigall.

In an effort to become a major player in Europe’s growing pharmaceutical-grade cannabis market, Danish Canify AS and Bavaria Weed GmbH merge to form Canify AG.  

Under the $120m deal, Genomatica and Unilever will scale plant- and waste-based alternative to palm oil and fossil fuels.

Roche obtained from European Medicine Agency (EMA) a special authorization (conditional approval) for new bispecific antibody Lunsumio for treatment of relapsed or refractory follicular (R/R) lymphoma (FL) – a B-cell cancer. Data for authorization are based on a survey from a phase I/II trail. The high unmet need of this indication led to that early decision, it is said.

ImCheck Therapeutics located in Marseille, France, announced today the close of a EUR 96 million (USD 103 million) financing, co-led by Earlybird and Andera Partners. Kurma Partners, Eurazeo, Gimv, Pfizer, Bpifrance through its Innobio 2 and Large Venture funds, Wellington Partners, Pureos Bioventures, Agent Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments are invested already. Invus and The Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society Therapy Acceleration Program also joined the round as new investors.

CHARM Therapeutics launches with a $50 million Series A financing to transform structure-based drug discovery using its proprietary DragonFold AI technology.

Based on data from the latest trials in grapes across vineyards in diverse climates throughout California and New York, Biotalys’ biocontrol product Evoca provided superior preventative control of Botrytis bunch rot in grapevines compared to chemical standard. Approval is estimated within this year.

Andera Partners, Paris based European private equity player, announced on Wednesday that, together with RA Capital Management, it is leading an oversubscribed and up-sized $118m Series B financing for Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc., Philadelphia (USA), a private, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company  developing novel therapy for the treatment of hypertension.

Successful restart: From 31 May to 1 June 2022, Chemspec Europe attracted 5,122 industry experts from 57 countries, of which 3,162 were trade visitors. A total of 287 exhibitors from 26 countries presented their product portfolio on a net exhibition space of 5,300 m2 at Messe Frankfurt, Germany. With topics such as sustainable innovations, regulatory compliances, circular bio-economy, green chemistry, digitalisation, and the flourishing startup scene, the 35th International Exhibition for Fine and Speciality Chemicals highlighted insights of current and future developments within the industry.