Finance, Grants, Deals

The UK artificial intelligence company Exscientia Ltd has expanded its drug discovery resource with the acquisition of Kinetic Discovery Ltd, a protein engineering specialist. The transaction follows Exscientia’s expansion in Oxford where it is bringing computer scientists, drug designers and biologists under one roof to work on algorithm development for drug discovery. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) has agreed to pay up to $1.5 billion upfront to AstraZeneca Plc for US rights to Synagis (palivizumab), an off-patent medicine for the prevention of serious lower respiratory tract infection caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and young children.

Curetis NV’s proposed private placement, intended to raise up to €18.4 million, has attracted less than half this amount, or €8.9 million, from investors. As a result, the molecular diagnostics company said it plans to reassess its strategic priorities.

The European institutions are a fertile source of funding for small and medium-sized life science enterprises, (SMEs), but gaining access to this capital requires a different set of skills than pitching for venture capital. This was one of the conclusions of a discussion at the BioEurope conference in Copenhagen on 6 November which featured presentations by Laszlo Helmle of the European Commission; Pierre Meulien of the Innovative Medicines I

In line with previously announced plans to diversify its portfolio, Novo Nordisk A/S has entered into a collaboration with a university spin-out, Embark Biotech ApS, to discover new treatments for obesity and associated metabolic pathologies.

A European research consortium in which Plasticell Ltd is a partner organisation has won a €3.7 million award from the EU to create cellular models of a group of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, which result from the acute or progressive loss of cells in the brain. The goal is to produce patient-specific human neural models in test tubes, microchips or model organisms that can be used to discover new therapies.

Orchard Therapeutics Ltd took the next step in its quest to become a global gene therapy company on 31 October with an initial public offering on Nasdaq which is expected to raise $200 million. Founded in 2015, the company has already generated nearly $300 million in venture capital.

The IPO consists of 14,285,715 American Depositary Shares representing 14,285,715 ordinary shares at a price of $14 per ADS before underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on 2 November.

Austria-based Themis Bioscience GmbH may raise up to €55.3 million in an initial public offering on Euronext Amsterdam and share placements in the US and elsewhere to finance the clinical development of its lead vaccine for Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral infection.

Denmark-based Galecto Biotech AB has raised €79 million in a Series C financing round to support a Phase 2/3 trial of its lead product for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease characterised by a progressive decline in lung function.

AbbVie Inc is to take full control of a joint cystic fibrosis (CF) research and development programme with Galapagos NV with the goal of bringing a triple combination CF therapy to the market. Currently in early clinical development, the programme consists of potentiator and corrector drug molecules that are intended to increase the activity of mutated copies of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein that causes the disease.