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%.
Celgene Corp, which only a year ago entered a 10-year collaboration with Juno Therapeutics, has now invested in Jounce Therapeutics Inc which has different technology for stimulating the immune system to fight cancer.
Juno Therapeutics Inc has acquired a Boston, Massachusetts, US biotech company with technology that can potentially disrupt immunosuppressive pathways in the tumour microenvironment of certain cancers. This fits in with its technology for engineering T cells to fight cancer.
An international research consortium that is working on a promising antibody for the treatment of influenza has had its work published in the 14 July edition of the journal Cell. The research suggests that the antibody has the potential for treating influenza caused by numerous type A strains.
Nextech Invest AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based, oncology fund manager, has closed its fourth fund, Nextech Oncology Fund IV, with an investment of $64 million. The funds were supplied by limited partners based in the US, Europe and Asia.
UK-based Storm Therapeutics Ltd, which is developing small molecules that target RNA-modifying enzymes in cancer, has raised £12 million in Series A equity financing. Two heavy-weight corporate venture capitalists participated in the financing, suggesting interest in the technology.
London, UK-based Tiziana Life Sciences Plc has expanded into genomic medicine with the purchase of a large biobank from Shardna SpA of Italy that has information on 13,000 genealogically linked residents of the Ogliastra region of Sardinia.
Bayer AG, whose name is usually associated with aspirin, has signaled its intention to deepen its commitment to crop science by raising its takeover bid for Monsanto Inc to $125 per share. The move values the company at $64 billion.