Finance, Grants, Deals

Emulate Inc, the developer of micro-engineered chips that mimic that activity of live human organs, has raised $36 million in a Series C financing round to finance the expansion of its organs-on-chips technology that is being used by the pharma industry to test candidate drugs for saf

Roche and Foundation Medicine Inc reached a definitive merger agreement on 19 June enabling the Swiss multinational to acquire shares of the US molecular information company that it does not already own.

A short 18 months after its launch as a new company, Microbiotica Ltd has entered into a multi-year collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche group, to discover, develop and commercialise biomarkers, targets and medicines for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). 

Hookipa Biotech AG has signed a licencing deal with Gilead Sciences Inc giving the US company exclusive rights to its technology platform to develop vaccines targeting the  hepatitis B and the human immunodeficiency viruses. The agreement brings Austria-based

AstraZeneca Plc announced on 7 May that it will divest its legacy neuroscience product Seroquel by way of a sale to Luye Pharma Group Ltd, a Chinese investment holding company.

Germany’s Medigene AG has raised €32.3 million in an oversubscribed private placement enabling it to expanded its ongoing clinical programme of prospective products for cancer using T cell receptor modified T cells.

A joint venture between Vifor Pharma Group and Fresenius Medical Care has entered into a licencing agreement with Cara Therapeutics Inc of the US to develop and commercialise a drug for treating severe itching associated with chronic kidney disease.

Responding to renewed interest in cancer vaccines, Merck & Co Inc and Moderna Therapeutics Inc have expanded a 2016 collaboration to develop and commercialise novel personalised messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.

AstraZeneca Plc is to use organ-on-chip technology to test drug compounds for safety and efficacy under a new collaboration with the Boston, Massachusetts, US company Emulate Inc. Emulate will co-locate scientists within AstraZeneca’s laboratories in the UK where the chips will be tested across the AZ pipeline.