Researchers at Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne and Canadian collaborators have found that the microbiome of irritable bowel syndrome patients affects their susceptibility for anxiety disorders.

BenevolentAI has hired a Chief Medical Officer making it the first artificial intelligence company to do so. Patrick Keohane will take up position of CMO at BenevolentBio. The subsidiary of BenevolentAI aims to apply its AI to develop meds, and plans to find other uses for AI in bioscience as well.

German lab equipment provider Sartorius has appointed Rainer Lehmann to the Executive Board. Lehmann will be overseeing the Finance, Human Resources Management and Information Technology functions.

Avelumab, Merck KGaA’s and Pfizer’s Phase III checkpoint inhibitor, has been granted Priority Review from the US Food and Drug Administration in urothelial carcinoma patients who progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.

The times in which biotechs dominate the orphan drug market are over. A report from business intelligence provider Evaluate Ltd. concludes that only three in ten OD developers are still biotech SMEs.

Henrik Luessen is taking over as Chief Business Officer at Promethera Biosciences SA, Belgian developer of cell-based meds. He will be responsible for identifying and executing strategic corporate development initiatives and licensing agreements.

Lund-based probiotics expert Probi AB has appointed Jörn Andreas as new CFO. He will replace Niklas Brandt, who in turn will take over responsibility for IT infrastructure and IR as CIO. 

Around 130 antibiotics experts joined the 10th Berlin Conference on 24th February to highlight high dynamics of European AMR activities. 

Swedish cancer med developer Oncopeptides AB has raised SEK649m (€68m) in an IPO at Nasdaq Stockholm.

Several promising antibiotic candidates, developed by ENABLE and its partners, are rapidly approaching the pre-clinical development stage. The European consortium is now seeking new partners to proceed with non-clinical studies.