Finance, Grants, Deals

The London-based private equity firm Cinven Ltd is acquiring the US medical services company Bioclinica Inc for a reported $1.4 billion as an investment for its sixth capital management fund.

In preparation for splitting into two new listed business, Switzerland-based Galenica AG has decided to make a $1.53 billion US acquisition that will help one of the prospective companies, Vifor Pharma, get off to a strong start.

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc has raised $5 million with a Series A equity placement that will top up its financing for a Phase 2 study of AMX0035, an experimental treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

A Swedish start-up company that links patients with doctors via the internet has raised €6.1 million in seed funding from a syndicate led by Index Ventures and Stockholm-based Creandum AB. Berlin-based Project A Ventures GmbH also participated in the round.

Cambridge Innovation Capital Plc (CIC), which finances projects arising from the University of Cambridge as well as from area biotechs, has raised £75 million in new equity capital from existing and new institutional investors including Woodford Investment Management.

The corporate venture arms of three European pharmaceutical groups are principal investors in a US start-up company called Tioma Therapeutics Inc that is developing antibodies targeting CD47, a protein that is overexpressed on different tumour cells.

After years of investing in a product for stroke that failed, and then relaunching its portfolio around anaesthesia, Paion AG now has its sights firmly set on the commercialisation of its lead product, remimazolam, in the US.

France-based Nicox SA has secured €18 million in fresh capital to finance further studies of its investigational ophthalmology compounds, giving it a cash runway to pursue its ambition to be a player in the US market for eye-care products.

Who would have thought it? An offering of 34 million shares of the Dutch contract manufacturing organisation Patheon NV raised a nominal $718.7 million at a price of $21 per share on the New York Stock Exchange in late July. Not only did institutional investors like the stock, they must have thought it was a fancy growth company – a super Crispr or perhaps an ultra CAR T Naamloze Vennootschap.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has deepened its commitment to the field of bioelectronic medicine with plans to set up a joint-venture company to develop implantable devices for chronic diseases. GSK will own 55% of the company Galvani Bioelectronics Ltd while Verily Life Sciences LLC will hold 45%.