Entries by Thomas Gabrielczyk

New Amsterdam Pharma merges with Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corp.

Through a $325m SPAC transaction with Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corporation, NewAmsterdam Pharma Holding B.V. will go public on Nasdaq. The newly formed holding company, NewAmsterdam Pharma Company N.V. will be led by Michael Davidson, M.D., CEO. The late clinical-stage company develops small molecule therapies for some cardiometabolic diseases.
The approximately $235m will come from an upsized and oversubscribed PIPE at $10.00 per share plus funds held in FLAC’s trust account following any redemptions. The PIPE was co-led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Bain Capital Life Sciences, and includes new investors RA Capital Management, GMT Capital, Medicxi Ventures, Panacea Venture and other institutional investors, in addition to existing NewAmsterdam shareholders Forbion, LSP Dementia Fund and Morningside Ventures. The proceeds from this transaction, combined with an upfront payment of $123m (€115m) from the company’s recent licensing agreement with the Menarini Group and NewAmsterdam’s existing cash and cash equivalents, would bring NewAmsterdam’s total pro forma cash balance to at least $470m, which the Company expects to fund operations through 2026, beyond the readout of NewAmsterdam’s Phase III PREVAIL CVOT study and two other pivotal Phase III studies. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in western countries, with high LDL levels being the chief culprit responsible for adverse outcomes and two-thirds of patients not reaching LDL goals despite the wide availability of statins.  New Amsterdam’s Phase III oral therapy has been demonstrated to confer an additional 51% of LDL-lowering on top of high dose statins Proceeds from the transaction are expected to provide NewAmsterdam with the capital needed to further develop obicetrapib through several value-creating clinical and regulatory milestones, including Phase III testing of the drug in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and/or established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who require additional lowering of low?density lipoprotein cholesterol on top of high intensity statins; Phase III trials in adults with HeFH, whose LDL-C is not adequately controlled despite being on maximally tolerated lipid-modifying therapies.  The goal is to market obicetrapib in the United States, Europe, Japan and China.

Oxford Science Enterprises raised a further £250 million ($300 million) in funding

Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), the independent investment company created to found, fund and build transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford, announced it has raised a further £250 million ($300 million) in funding. This brings the total amount raised by OSE to more than £850 million (>$1 billion) since inception in 2015 according to the company´s statement.

Swedish Bioinvent issues shares worth SEK299m (USD28m)

BioInvent has successfully carried out a directed share issue of approximately SEK 300 million (approximately USD 28.3 million). A number of international and Swedish investors participated, including new investors such as AXA Investment Managers and a US institutional investor and the existing shareholders Forbion, HBM Healthcare Investments, Redmile Group, Invus, the Fourth National Swedish Pension Fund and Swedbank Robur Fonder, with demand for the new shares exceeding the size of the planned volume.

Accelerom Automated Sample Preparation Platform

Break free from the long reaction times, high costs, and method complexity of manual proteomic sample preparation with the Thermo Scientific AccelerOme automated sample preparation platform. With factory-supplied reagents and kits, and step-by-step onscreen instructions, high reproducibility and confident results are delivered for both label-free and tandem mass tag (TMT) multiplexing strategies with minimal effort. The AccelerOme platform is optimized to fit into the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap mass spectrometer ecosystem, streamlining the entire workflow from sample preparation to data processing.

Nanobodies: An Important Tool for the Next Generation of Tumor Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Nanobodies are emerging as important tools for tumor diagnosis and treatment due to their small size, simple humanization, low immunogenicity, superior affinity and stability, high penetration, and adequate levels of solubility, and are expected to revolutionize the antibody-based drug therapy. In 2018, the world´s first nanobody was approved for marketing in the European Union to treat adult patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. At present, more than 20 nanobodies are being tested in clinical research worldwide, mostly in clinical phase I or II.