Øystein Soug, CEO of Targovax. © Targovax ASA

Despite a 6-month improvement of 2-year-overall survival in pancreatic cancer patients, Norwegian cancer immunotherapy specialist Targovax ASA will terminate development of TG01 in this indication. Instead, development of RAS neoantigen-targeting cancer vaccines will be pushed in colorectal cancer.

This April, Autolus Therapeutics and Miltenyi Biotec inked a long-term agreement on the supply and support of Miltenyi Biotec's CliniMACS Prodigy instruments, reagents and disposables for the manufacture of Autolus' programmed T cell therapies. © Miltenyi Biotec

British T cell player, Autolus Therapeutics Ltd. wants to go NASDAQ selling 7.8 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at  at least US-$15, totaling in US$117m. Through a greenshoe option, Autolus want to offer additional 1,171,875 ADS at the IPO price. 

Press conference by Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, and Commissioner Moedas on the 2012-2027 European Research and Innovation programmes. © Audiovisual Service of the EC

EU Commissioners Jyrki Katainen and Carlos Moedas proposed a budget increase of 25% for the next  European Research and Innovation programme Horizon Europe (2021-27) vs Horizon 2020. However MEPs said that the new moonshot research section EIC is underfunded. Furthermore, the current funding quote of 11% was too low compared to other international excellence programmes.

© Biogen

Alkermes plc (Dublin) received a US$50m milestone payment from Biogen after review of preliminary Phase III gastrointestinal tolerability data of Alkermes’ relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis candidate diroximel fumarate (BIIB098).

© Hoopkia Biotech AG

Austrian arenaviral vector technology specialist Hookipa Biotech AG (Vienna, Austria) has licenced its TheraT and Vaxwave technologies exclusively to Gilead Sciences Inc. to develop and globally commercialise vaccines against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Mode of action of Roche's bispecific antibody emicizumab: Hemlibra bridges blood clotting factors FIXa and FX, which is normally done by FVIIIa. © Roche

The US FDA has accepted a supplemental BLA to Roche’s existing market approval of the new hemophilia A treatment Hemlibra (emicizumab), which could significantly extend the patient group covered by the label. 

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended nine medicines for approval, including two orphan medicines, at its May 2018 meeting.

An artist's illustration of a seizure discharge recorded from a slice of human epileptic brain tissue with electrodes. © E. Dossi et al., Science Translational Medicine (2018)

French researchers have found a key driver of chronic epilepsy. 

F-Star claims to be the first company that can create bispecifics that incorporate a binding site on the constant Fc region of the antibody. © EPvantage

Brain disease specialist Denali Therapeutics will buy all outstanding shares in British F-Star Gamma Ltd from F-Star instead licencing bispecific antibody candidates that can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) co-developed under an agreement dating back to 2016.

Roche announced that atezolimumab plus chemotherapy met its co-primary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) as first-line treatment of stage IV nonsquamous non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).