Cambridge Innovation Capital Plc (CIC), which finances projects arising from the University of Cambridge as well as from area biotechs, has raised £75 million in new equity capital from existing and new institutional investors including Woodford Investment Management.
The corporate venture arms of three European pharmaceutical groups are principal investors in a US start-up company called Tioma Therapeutics Inc that is developing antibodies targeting CD47, a protein that is overexpressed on different tumour cells.
Denmark-based Symphogen A/S, which is developing recombinant antibody mixtures for cancer, has promoted Martin Olin, the company’s chief financial officer, to the position of chief executive officer and member of the board of directors.
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd is continuing plans to bring its antibiotic ceftobiprole to the US market, while tightening control over its early-stage portfolio. In a report on the first-half year on 15 August, it disclosed plans to drop a preclinical, inhaled antibiotic candidate after a data review.
After years of investing in a product for stroke that failed, and then relaunching its portfolio around anaesthesia, Paion AG now has its sights firmly set on the commercialisation of its lead product, remimazolam, in the US.
Pharming Group NV has reached an agreement to take back North American commercialisation rights for its recombinant therapy for hereditary angioedema (HAE), Ruconest, from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc giving it a chance to build a dedicated US sales force.
Germany-based Affimed NV is turning its focus to prospective combination therapies for its bispecific antibody portfolio, highlighted by the start of a Phase 1b study in the US combining its lead product AFM13 with the Merck & Co Inc immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab).
Genmab A/S has announced a new licencing agreement around its bispecific antibody platform – this time with Gilead Sciences Inc to create and develop candidate therapies targeting HIV.
Autifony Therapeutics Ltd, which has a technology for modulating ion channels, has reported the failure of a Phase 2a trial in patients with age-related hearing loss. However a second therapy based on the same technology passed a Phase 1 study in schizophrenia.
GW Pharmaceuticals Plc expects to file a new drug application (NDA) with the Food and Drug Administration for its cannabinoid medicine Epidiolex in the first half of next year following positive Phase 3 data in both Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes.