Finance, Grants, Deals

Shire Plc has made an unsolicited offer valued at about $30 billion to acquire a recent spinout from Baxter International Inc which potentially could double Shire’s revenue.

A new company has been set up in the UK to acquire clinical assets that large pharma companies may not be in a position to develop further. The first programmes acquired by Mereo BioPharma Group Ltd are three mid-stage clinical assets from Novartis.

A three-year collaboration between Ablynx NV and Merck & Co. Inc in immuno-oncology has been extended by one year in order to enable the parties to investigate up to 12 new molecules targeting individual protein targets and combinations of targets that could potentially treat cancer, Ablynx announced the new agreement on 22 July.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd has raised £70 million through a private placement of shares with new and existing investors in the UK, US and continental Europe to support development of the company’s electronic molecular analysis systems.

Immunocore Ltd of Oxford UK has raised $320 million (£205 million) in a private financing round to support development of its pipeline of bispecific biologic drugs for the treatment of cancer and viral infections.

ReNeuron Plc has outlined a three-year plan for the development of its stem-cell therapy portfolio that would, if successful, lead to regulatory applications for products in both stroke and retinitis pigmentosa. To support this development, it is proposing to raise £68.4 million in a share placement.

Autifony Therapeutics Ltd has obtained an additional £8 million in funding to expand the potential for its potassium channel modulator technology beyond hearing disorders, to schizophrenia and other indications.

A France-based microbiome company has raised €2 million in a Series A financing to develop two new compounds with the potential for targeting bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotics. Seventure Partners is providing the capital to Eligo Bioscience SAS.

Premaitha Health Plc, which has a prenatal test for assessing the risk of Down’s syndrome and other genetic defects, has raised £8 million from a placement of new shares on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange.

4SC AG has secured funding for the further clinical development of its histone-deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor resminostat enabling it to take the compound through a Phase 2 and pre-registration trial in patients with cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL).