Finance, Grants, Deals

Janssen Biotech Inc has expanded its European partnerships with a new bispecific antibody deal – this time with F-star Therapeutics Ltd of the UK. Janssen already has projects underway using bispecific technology from Genmab A/S. The deal with F-star will explore new antibody therapeutics that are both bispecific and tetravalent, meaning they simultaneously target immune and tumour cells whilst having two additional sites for antigen binding.

UK-based STORM Therapeutics Ltd has entered into an exclusive collaboration and licensing agreement with Exelixis Inc to discover potential treatments for cancer by inhibiting enzymes that modify RNA. The initial focus of the partnership will be on ADAR1 (adenosine deaminases acting on RNA), an enzyme that edits double-stranded RNA molecules. In so doing, the enzyme reduces their ability to activate the innate immune system.

A new biotech company with plans to target ABC transporters, one of the oldest families of proteins, has been launched with $100 million in Series A financing by US-based Atlas Venture and three other groups. Rectify Pharmaceuticals Inc will develop small molecule drugs aimed at restoring dysfunctional ABC transporters to a normal state. These transporters play an essential role in ferrying organic and inorganic molecules across cellular membranes.

A new collaboration between Intellia Therapeutics Inc and the French ophthalmology company SparingVision SAS will seek to apply genome editing technology to the treatment of diseases of the eye. Announced on 13 October, the partnership will use Intellia’s in vivo Crispr/Cas9-based platform to investigate up to three ocular targets.

Evotec SE has made a regulatory filing in the US in preparation for a listing of its shares on the US Nasdaq market. The size of the issue of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) had not been determined as of 11 October. But it comes at a time of strong revenue growth for the Germany-based company.

Advent France Biotechnology completed the first closing of a new venture fund on 30 September, raising €86 million to invest in early-stage European life science companies with a particular focus on France. The European Investment Fund and the French Seed Fund 2 participated in the financing, along with corporate venture funds associated with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Laboratoires Pierre Fabre.

Aglaia Therapeutics SAS, a French start-up company, has raised €4 million in seed financing to start preclinical development of cancer drugs that can overcome a patient’s resistance to current targeted therapies. The company’s portfolio is based on research showing that the abnormal activation of the eIF4F protein complex leads to the synthesis of proteins involved in tumour growth.

AstraZeneca Plc has exercised an option to take full ownership of Caelum Biosciences Inc, a US company with a product in Phase 3 for the treatment of amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis. AL amyloidosis is a rare disease in which misfolded amyloid proteins build up in organs throughout the body, including the heart and kidneys.

AstraZeneca Plc has invested in a UK university spin-out that has a platform for developing vaccines and medicines using self-amplifying RNA. The company, VaxEquity Ltd, was founded in 2020 by Robin Shattock, head of immunology of infection at Imperial College London and Morningside Ventures, a Chinese venture capital and private equity group. Both Morningside and AstraZeneca have made equity investments in the company, the sizes of which were not disclosed.

A bid by Philip Morris International Inc for Vectura Group Plc became unconditional on 15 September following acceptance by investors representing 74.77% of Vectura’s shares, the two companies announced. In August, the Vectura board of directors accepted the offer and this has now been approved by shareholders.