Company News

Privately-owned Servier of France has exercised an option to acquire equity in GeNeuro SA, a Swiss biotech that is poised to test a new antibody in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Inthera Bioscience AG, a Swiss start-up company with a new approach for treating cancer, has received €3.4 million in seed money from a syndicate of venture capital investors led by MS Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA. 

 AbbVie Inc may have surprised Galapagos NV in September when it ended a multi-year agreement to develop a new drug for rheumatoid arthritis. But now Galapagos has responded with a new deal with Gilead Sciences Inc for the same drug, but on better terms.

Abzena Plc has made its second acquisition in three months in order to expand the number of services it markets to companies developing biopharmaceutical products for human disease. The deal highlights strong activity in the space for biosimilars and antibody-drug conjugates.  

 AstraZeneca Plc has agreed to make an upfront payment of $2.5 billion to take a controlling stake in Acerta Pharma BV of the Netherlands and manage a late-stage oncology asset that has shown positive results in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

GamaMabs Pharma, a French biotech company focused on gynaecological cancers, has raised €15 million in a Series B financing round to take its lead product into first human studies. The round was led by the new investor Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. 

Immunovia AB, a Swedish diagnostic company, has reported the results of a retrospective study of blood samples from patients with pancreatic cancer which was able to differentiate patients with early cancer from controls with 96% accuracy.

Seventure Partners of France, one of the earliest investors in companies making microbiome-based products, has closed its microbiome-oriented healthcare fund at €160 million, up from €120 million previously largely due to the participation of Novartis Pharma AG.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Sanofi SA have become the latest pharmaceutical companies to swap assets in a bid to strengthen their respective market positions in veterinary medicines and consumer healthcare products.

A candidate gene therapy for haemophilia B developed by scientists at University College London (UCL) was so effective in a Phase 1/2 study that Syncona LLP has decided to start a new company to commercialise it.