Finance, Grants, Deals

Carrick Therapeutics launches with $95 million

Country
Ireland

A new oncology company, Carrick Therapeutics Ltd, has been launched in Dublin, Ireland with $95 million in seed funding to build a portfolio of personalised medicines based on emerging knowledge about cancer growth and resistance at a molecular level.

Zealand Pharma in private equity placement

Country
Denmark

Zealand Pharma A/S has raised DKK143 million ($22 million) with a private placement of new shares at DKK 96.90, a 5% discount from the market price before the announcement.

Boehringer invests in oncolytic viruses

Country
Germany

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has expanded its oncology portfolio to include oncolytic virus technology through a collaboration with privately held ViraTherapeutics GmbH of Austria. The deal is potentially worth €210 million.

UK start-up has new angle on T cell therapy

Country
United Kingdom

A UK start-up company called GammaDelta Therapeutics Ltd has joined a small number of European companies that are exploring the potential of gamma delta T cells as the basis for new immunotherapies for cancer.

Amgen to work with Italian scientists on new gene therapy

Country
Italy

Amgen Inc has signed a research agreement with two Milan-based institutions to develop an ex-vivo gene therapy for cancer. The research will be based on some of the same principles that guided the development of Strimvelis, an ex vivo stem cell gene therapy that was approved by the European Commission in May of this year.

Series C round for Ireland’s Vivasure

Country
Ireland

A privately held Irish medical technology company has raised €16.2 million in capital to support the commercialisation in Europe of an implant and delivery system that closes blood vessels after certain medical procedures. The company, Vivasure Medical Ltd, is based in Galway.

Fluidic Analytics raises £5.3 million

Country
United Kingdom

Fluidic Analytics Ltd, a 2013 spin-out from the University of Cambridge’s chemistry department, has raised £5.3 million in a Series B investment round to progress its line of laboratory research tools for characterising proteins that can reveal an individual’s disease state or state of health.

Bayer to pay $66 billion for Monsanto

Country
Germany

Bayer AG has agreed to pay $128 per share in an all-cash bid for Monsanto Co to create one of the largest suppliers of seeds and agricultural chemicals. Including debt, the transaction is valued at $66 billion and is one of the largest German takeovers of a US company.

Alphabet and Sanofi in diabetes venture

Country
United States

Verily Life Sciences LLC, a subsidiary of the IT conglomerate Alphabet Inc, and Sanofi SA, have created a jointly owned company called Onduo which will provide services to patients with Type 2 diabetes by tapping into the potential of big data to help patients manage their disease. Onduo will be based in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the mecca of the global biotech industry.