The Novo Nordisk Foundation is launching a new European incubator network to turn academic discoveries in cardiometabolic disease into drug development projects, extending the broader European innovation push it set in motion earlier this year through a DKK5.5bn (€736 million) commitment to the BioInnovation Institute (BII).
Dublin’s Jazz Pharmaceuticals has inked a cancer research collaboration potentially worth more than $4 billion plus royalties with AbCellera, the Vancouver biotech backed by billionaire investor and political activist Peter Thiel.
UK antifungal specialist F2G and Japanese partner Shionogi have announced positive topline results from the global Phase III OASIS trial of olorofim in patients with invasive aspergillosis, a life-threatening fungal infection that mainly affects immunocompromised patients.
After months of regulatory uncertainty, uniQure says the FDA will accept three-year Phase I/II data as the primary basis for an accelerated approval application for AMT-130.
With a first $50 million tranche of its Series B financing and a commercial partnership with MEDICE, HMNC Brain Health has secured fresh capital for its depression programmes. The deal marks an important milestone for the Munich-based company – nearly a decade after it first set out to transform psychiatry through precision medicine.
Finnish biotech Aplagon has raised €4.8m to broaden Phase II development of its lead candidate APAC, a first-in-class antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy for thrombo-inflammatory diseases. The financing will support a new Phase II clinical programme in arteriovenous fistula (AVF) maturation failure in patients with end-stage kidney disease.
Kos Biotechnology Partners has raised US$123m (€106m) for its inaugural global life sciences fund, marking a notable step for Greece’s still young biotechnology financing ecosystem.
Sensorion has selected SENS-601, its gene therapy candidate for GJB2-related hearing loss, as its lead gene therapy program after filing clinical trial applications in France and Canada. The French biotech is discontinuing development of its OTOF-targeted therapy SENS-501, citing a changed competitive environment following the approval of Regeneron’s rival gene therapy.
Orionis and Novartis have expanded an existing deal to develop “molecular glue”, with a new agreement worth up to $1.4 billion, aiming to stick small molecule drugs onto challenging and elusive drug targets.
Veraxa Biotech, an oncology company spun out of research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), has completed its merger with SPAC company Voyager Acquisition Corp. and will be trading as of today on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol VRXA. For the company, which has roots in the Heidelberg region, the move marks its transition from a research-driven company to a publicly listed biotech developer.
NIH