CureVac GmbH, developer of a novel messenger RNA vaccine technology, has obtained €80 million in new financing from its principal shareholder, dievini Hopp Biotech Holding, enabling it to advance the clinical development of its lead product – a therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer.
Evotec AG has secured a multi-year contract with the US National Institutes of Health to manage the institute’s small molecule repository, a library of small-molecule compounds. The agreement, which may last for up to 10 years, is valued at €60 million.
London has been selected as one of four new regional innovation centres by Johnson & Johnson Inc which is in the process of reorganising its early-stage life science investments. The other centres will be in the US and China.
Venture-capital backed Immune Targeting Systems Ltd has reported the results of its first clinical test of a new synthetic peptide vaccine for influenza A. It has also announced changes in top management ahead of a new funding round.
UCB SA has signalled its commitment to biologic drugs with the construction of a new manufacturing plant in Belgium that will produce cell culture-based therapeutic proteins. The plant will supply product for UCB research and trials.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has invested $5.5 million in Response Genetics Inc through a private share placement giving it 15.2% of the expanded share capital of the US diagnostics company. GSK in-licenses genetic testing services from the company.
The Anglo/Russian pharmaceutical company, Pro Bono Bio Group Plc, has reported promising pre-clinical data for a new group of haemophilia products that would act longer than existing blood factor proteins thereby enabling patients to self-administer treatments at home. The preclinical data still must be confirmed in human trials and approved by a regulator before any products could be marketed.
AstraZeneca Plc and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US have announced a collaboration to identify new chemical compounds targeting bacterial and viral infections. Financial details were not disclosed.
SV Life Sciences and Novo A/S are among the four new investors supporting a Series B financing round for Karus Therapeutics Ltd of the UK. The investors have thus far committed $7.6 million to support programmes in inflammation and cancer.
Eli Lilly and Company said that a Phase 3 trial (Pointbreak) of a combination treatment for patients with nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer has failed to meet its primary endpoint of improved overall survival.