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.
Roche has announced that in a Phase III trial, its antibody-drug conjugate Kadcyla showed improved invasive disease-free survival in breast cancer patients.
Six years after the European Commission created the world’s first bioeconomy strategy and action plan, it presented a new action plan aimed at moving faster towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, biobased industry.
T cells target a bacterial variant of a human enzyme promoting autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Genentech’s new partner Affimed NV has halted two blood cancer programmes with its tetravalent bispecific T cell engager AFM11 after a death and two cases of severe neurotoxicity occured in Phase I trails.
Oxford-based immunoncology player Sitryx Therapeutics Ltd. (Oxford, U.K.) has bagged $30m in a Series A financing round led by SV Health Investors and new investor Sofinnova Partners. Longwood Fund and GlaxoSmithKline plc participated in this financing.
British gene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics will go IPO on Nasdaq, according to SEC filings. The company plans to raise $172.5m as ADS in an IPO underwritten by J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Cowen and Wedbush PacGrow to balance its costs, which rose from US$13m to US$138m this year. Financial markets are expected to react positively.
Diagnostics company sphingotec GmbH successfully closed a €20m growth equity financing round led by international specialist investors HBM Healthcare Investments, HBM BioCapital II LP (HBM) and Wellington Partners.