Unsplash+Membrane protein degradation specialist Laigo Bio has completed the final close of its €17m (US$18.5m) seed financing. Funds will go towards the oncology and auto-immunity programmes based on the company’s bispecific antibody platform for hard-to-treat targets.
adobe stock photos - Michael Derrer Fuchs Novartis is pressing ahead with its aggressive expansion strategy in oncology, striking again: the Basel-based group is acquiring a novel PI3Kalpha inhibitor from Synnovation Therapeutics for up to USD 3 billion.
adobe stock photos - Sundry Photography The Basel-based pharmaceutical group Roche is pressing ahead with its digital strategy and setting new benchmarks for the industry. Together with NVIDIA, the company is building an “AI factory” that will become the largest computing infrastructure ever announced by a pharma company. In the race among pharma majors, Roche has now overtaken the supercomputer recently unveiled by Eli Lilly.
UK biotech Mestag Therapeutics has raised $40 million and appointed veteran drug developers Lindsey Rolfe as chief medical officer and Pascal Merchiers as chief development officer, as the company prepares to start its first clinical trial in cancer in mid-2026. The new financing brings total capital committed to the Cambridge-based company to more than $95 million, following its $11 million launch round in April 2021 and a seed extension that took total seed financing to $45 million in August 2021.
adobe stock photos - deemerwhaThe new Dortmund-based biotech iDEL Therapeutics has launched with a €9 million seed round to develop a new class of cancer therapies. The financing was led by BiomedVC, with participation from NRW.Venture, Gründerfonds Ruhr and the KHAN Technology Transfer Fund II.
London-based Ternary Therapeutics has raised a €4.1 million seed round to expand its platform for designing molecular glue drugs, with Paris-based VC daphni leading the financing alongside Pace Ventures, i&i Biotech Fund and Future Planet Capital.
French AI biotech Owkin has spun out its diagnostics division as a new company, Waiv, raising $33 million in financing led by OTB Ventures and Alpha Intelligence Capital to scale AI-powered precision testing.
Valanx BiotechVALANX Biotech has raised €3 million in a Series A funding round to advance an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting LIV-1 for triple-negative breast cancer. The developments are currently still at the preclinical stage.
Paris-based Enodia Therapeutics announced the acquisition of preclinical assets from San Francisco-based Kezar Life Sciences’ pipeline. Both companies are developers of small molecules that target protein degradation, a field that is attracting significant attention for its potential to treat previously intractable diseases.
Evotec SECost-cutting measures sometimes arrive wrapped in reassuring language. “Horizon” is the name Evotec SE has given to the next stage of its restructuring programme, which will affect additional sites and their employees. Up to 800 staff may find it difficult to look past the polished wording.