Finance, Grants, Deals

Keranova SA, a start-up company with a focus on ophthalmology, has obtained €4 million in Series A funding to develop an instrument for eye surgery that would require a minimum of manual intervention.

MedDay SAS, a France-based biotech, has raised €34 million in a Series B financing round to conduct a confirmatory Phase 3 study in the US of its formulation of biotin in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).

UK-based Heptares Therapeutics has outlicensed a portfolio of early-stage neurology compounds to Allergan Plc in order to accelerate their development for the treatment of cognitive impairment and neurobehavioural symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.

Anergis SA of Switzerland has raised CHF 5 million (€4.6 million) from its existing investors to finance a further intermediate study of its lead vaccine against birch pollen allergy. The Phase 2b study is expected to start in the fall of 2016 and enroll 450 patients.

A ruling by the Obama administration to further tighten rules against tax inversions has led to the termination of a pending $160 billion merger between Pfizer Inc and Allergan Plc. Meanwhile Shire Plc has said that its merger with Baxalta will go ahead.

UK-based Scancell Holdings Plc has raised £6.1 million from a private share placement and an open offer to shareholders enabling it to make plans to start a combination study of its lead cancer vaccine called SCIB1 and a checkpoint inhibitor.

Milan-based Genenta Science, which has an experimental gene therapy for delivering interferon to tumours, has signed a multi-year manufacturing agreement with MolMed SpA in preparation for the start of clinical trials of a gene therapy for multiple myeloma.

Netherlands-based Qiagen NV, a producer of medical devices and diagnostics, is making an agreed bid for its smaller rival Exiqon A/S of Denmark for approximately €12 million in a further sign of consolidation in the global diagnostics industry.

A 2015 oncology start-up from the Netherlands has obtained €7 million in Series A financing for a technology that targets the metabolic changes in tumour cells as a way of destroying them. Gadeta BV is based on research from the University Medical Center Utrecht.

Atlantic Healthcare Plc, a UK firm specialising in gastrointestinal disorders, has raised $24 million in a private equity placement to finance the Phase 3 development of an experimental drug called alicaforsen for treating inflammatory bowel disease pouchitis.