adobe stock photos - MikeCS Images AAVantgarde Bio has closed a $141M (€122M) Series B financing round led by Schroders Capital, Atlas Venture, and Forbion. New investors included Amgen Ventures, Athos Capital, CDP Venture Capital, Columbia IMC, Neva SGR, Sixty Degree Capital, XGen Venture, and Willett Advisors. Existing investors Longwood Fund and Sofinnova Partners also participated.
Adobe stock photos - https://european-biotechnology.com/latest-news/roche-moves-obesity-asset-ct-388-into-phase-iii/Danish Novo Nordisk A/S has made an unexpected takeover bid for US biotech Metsera, Inc. This challenges the already agreed acquisition by Pfizer Inc. Novo offers US$6.5bn in cash, plus up to US$2.5bn in milestone payments. The total potential value is around US$9bn. Pfizer previously offered US$4.9bn plus US$2.4bn in milestones.
NATOThe NATO is clearly priorising biotech to a defence priority with an annual budget of potentially up to €500m for biotech start-ups starting from 2026. At the opening of the first ever NATO Biotechnology Conference, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said: “Between last year and this year, we funded a total of 28 promising biotechnology companies through the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA)”. Rutte indicated that DIANA’s budget could grow significantly in the medium term, potentially up to five-fold.
GSKBritish GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) has entered a US$745m licensing agreement with Empirico Inc for EMP-012, a first-in-class siRNA candidate for COPD. EMP-012 targets the underserved non-type 2 inflammation market segment valued at US$600–700bn.
adobe stock photos - Michael Derrer Fuchs In a major bet on RNA medicine, Swiss Novartis AG announced to buy Avidity Biosciences Inc for US$12bn. Avidity’s Oligonucleotide Conjugate (AOC) platform allows Transferin receptor-targeted RNA delivery to muscle. With the acquisition Novartis secures access to three late-stage RNA drug candidates for muscular dystrophies.
Adobe stock photo - tippapatt GHO Capital has closed its fourth fund, GHO Capital IV LP, raising over €2.5bn (~US$2.9bn) to invest in global healthcare. The fund brings the firm’s total assets under management to around €9bn, making it Europe’s largest healthcare-focused private equity firm.
adobe stock photos - Jiraporn Hemab Therapeutics A/S has completed an oversubscribed US$157m Series C financing round led by Sofinnova Partners to accelarate and expand its pipeline in bleeding disorders and thrombosis treatments.
IPCEI Med4CureThe French AI-synbio specialist Abolis Biotechnologies SAS has entered a strategic €140m alliance with API manufacturer EuroAPI SA under the IPCEI Med4Cure funding programme. Within the collaboration, Abolis is developing production chassis for microbial corticosteroid manufacturing. The goal: to make Europe independent from imports from Asia.
adobe stock photos - Miha Creative VC investments in biotech rose 70.9% in Q3 2025 to US$3.1bn, driven by Series D growth, M&A activity, and Fed interest rate cuts, reports Global Data. J.P. Morgan reports same trends but different figures.
Pleiotrope - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15999847California-based biotech Electra Therapeutics Inc has secured US$183m in Series C financing. The investment comes from a consortium of four European investors and Mubadala Capital. Contrary to some reports, more SIRPα modulators exist than the investors initially indicated.