Finance, Grants, Deals

AstraZeneca Plc is to expand its drug manufacturing and research and development presence in China with an investment of $15 billion through 2030. China is already the company’s second largest market after the US, as well as a significant source of medical research and business collaborations. The new investment will build on this foundation. AstraZeneca announced the plan on 29 January, concurrent with a visit by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to China to strengthen economic ties between the two countries.

GSK Plc has reach an agreement to acquire US-based RAPT Therapeutics Inc for $2.2 billion, strengthening its position in the field of medicines for inflammatory and immunologic diseases. The US company’s lead product, ozureprubart, is a monoclonal antibody that is being developed as a prophylactic against food allergens. It targets immunoglobulin E (IgE) which is the mode of action of at least one other approved biologic. Other treatments include allergen-specific immunotherapies. The standard of care is avoidance of allergens.

Amgen Inc has selected two preclinical European biotech companies for deals in oncology with the expectation that they will help the company deliver new treatments for acute myeloid leukaemia and small cell lung and colorectal cancers. Total outlays for the two deals could be as much as $1.46 billion. The largest transaction involves the acquisition of Dark Blue Therapeutics Ltd of the UK for up to $840 million. The smaller deal is a collaboration with Germany-based DISCO Pharmaceuticals GmbH which is potentially valued at $618 million plus royalties.

Forbion of the Netherlands has co-led, along with Novartis Venture Fund, a $130 million Series B funding for a US company developing small molecule chaperones to correct the misfolding of proteins in cells – a cause of Alzheimer’s and other diseases. The developer, Protego Biopharma Inc of San Diego, US, is a clinical stage company whose lead product is poised to enter a trial in patients with primary amyloidosis, a disease affecting the heart and kidneys.

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) is to pay up to $1.5 billion to acquire Arthrosi Therapeutics Inc of San Diego, US, which has a Phase 3 product for gout, a type of inflammatory arthritis caused by a build-up of uric acid in the blood. Sobi already has a product for gout in registrational studies in the US. The acquisition will expand its presence in the field where disease prevalence is expected to rise by more than 70% from 2020 to 2050 due to population growth and ageing, according to The Lancet Rheumatology.

Laigo Bio BV, a Dutch biotech with a platform designed to promote the degradation of disease-causing proteins, has received €11.5 million in seed financing to advance early-stage programmes in oncology and autoimmunity. The financing was co-led by Kurma Partners of France and Curie Capital of the Netherlands. Other investors included France-based Argobio Studio, an incubator which participated in Laigo’s launch in 2022.

The European Commission launched a comprehensive package of measures in early December designed to realise the full potential of the single market for financial services. The package is a key component of the EU Savings and Investments Union (SIU) strategy, which aims to create a more integrated, efficient and competitive financial system and to support businesses across Europe in accessing funding.

China-based multinational Tencent and the UK’s Business Growth Fund (BGF) have joined an investor syndicate to provide new Series A funding to T-Therapeutics Ltd, a Cambridge University spin-out which is developing T cell receptor (TCR) T cell therapies. The latest funding, for $32 million, brings the total amount raised under the Series A round to $91 million. It will be used to advance the company’s prospective T cell receptor products to the clinic. The therapeutic focus is on cancer and autoimmune disease.

Gate Bioscience Inc, a US company founded in 2021 to develop small molecule drugs targeting disease-causing extracellular proteins, has received $65 million in Series B financing to take its lead programmes into clinical development. This brings total capital raised for the company to $135 million. The financing was led by Forbion of the Netherlands with Eli Lilly and Co as a new investor. 

Artios Pharma Ltd, a UK clinical-stage company with products to kill cancer cells by blocking their ability to repair damaged DNA, has raised $115 million in an oversubscribed Series D financing. The round was co led by founding investor SV Health Investors and new investor RA Capital Management. The funds will be used to advance two small molecule drugs against large cancers. The first, alnodesertib, is an inhibitor of the ATR protein which is involved in DNA repair, and the second is ART6043, an inhibitor of the DNA repair enzyme DNA polymerase theta (Pol theta).