Finance, Grants, Deals

Novartis International AG is expanding its franchise in immunotherapy with a major collaboration with Aduro Biotech Inc of California aimed at developing new therapies for  cancer.

Redx Pharma Plc, which specialises in developing analogues of existing pharmaceuticals, has raised £15 million in an initial public offering on the AIM market in London in order to strengthen its pipeline of oncology and infectious disease assets.

The cohort of companies developing products for treating cancer with genetically engineered T-cells has increased with the announcement that Merck Serono and Intrexon Corp will collaborate to generate new drug candidates using the technology.

France’s OSE Pharma SA, which is developing immunotherapies for cancer, has raised €21.1 million with an initial public offering of its shares on the Euronext stock exchange in Paris. The managers said the IPO was 3.6 times oversubscribed.

Rigontec GmbH, which is developing RNA-based immunotherapeutics for cancer and viral diseases, has reopened its Series A financing to include the new investors Forbion Capital Partners of the Netherlands and Sunstone Capital A/S of Denmark. Each invested €2.4 million.

Research by Douglas Melton of Harvard University and colleagues showing that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can be created in a laboratory has reached the stage of commercialisation with the launch of a new company aimed at bringing a cell therapy for diabetes into human trials.

Essex Woodlands, one of the world’s largest investors in pharmaceuticals and healthcare services, has teamed up with the serial entrepreneur Bryan Morton to launch a new UK-based speciality pharmaceutical business with a portfolio of marketed products that generated $27 million in sales in 2014.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has taken the unusual step of making a $52 million equity investment in CureVac GmbH of Germany which has technology for making prophylactic vaccines that don’t require cold chain storage and distribution. The technology is based on messenger RNA.

Nicox SA, which is engaged in ophthalmic product development, has raised €27 million through a share placement with institutional investors in order to finance the marketing of its late stage products.

AbbVie Inc has raised the bar for oncology acquisitions with an agreement to buy Pharmacyclics Inc and its recently approved drug Imbruvica (ibrutinib) for blood cancers for a cash and share offer totaling $21 billion. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies.