Finance, Grants, Deals

Researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium have joined forces with two French pharmaceutical companies to discover new compounds targeting the  LRRK2 gene in Parkinson’s disease.

Venture-capital backed Poxel SA of France has raised €13 million in a Series B round to support the clinical development of its lead product for Type 2 diabetes, Imeglimin. The financing was led by Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.

Austria’s leading biotechnology company, Intercell AG, has agreed to merge with Vivalis SA of France in an all-share transaction that will give Vivalis’s shareholders a controlling stake in a new, combined company to be located in Lyons, France.

MorphoSys AG has announced plans to sell its service business, AbD Serotec, to Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc for €53 million in cash. The divestment will enable the German company to focus on its therapeutic antibody business.

H. Lundbeck A/S is to sell 10 non-core assets to Recordati S.p.A. of Italy in order to focus on its newer products in the area of neurological disorders. The Danish company said it will receive up to $100 million which will be reinvested in new products and geographical expansion.

AstraZeneca Plc has signalled its interest in antisense technology with the recent announcement of a new strategic alliance with Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc in oncology. The main asset is an inhibitor of the STAT3 protein which is overexpressed in numerous cancers.

Switzerland-based Biocartis SA has raised €34.5 million in a Series D round to commercialise a molecular diagnostics platform that is aimed at the life science research market. The round was led by the Flemish investment company, PMV NV.

Sofinnova Partners has raised €240 million for its seventh venture capital fund which will support entrepreneurs who are developing new biopharmaceutical technologies, medical devices and industrial biotechnology products.

Venture-capital backed Bicycle Therapeutics Ltd has secured Astellas Venture Management as a new investor as part of a tranched equity financing that will bring it £3.75 million in new money to support a move from research into drug discovery.

Genome-based drug discovery received a lift on Monday with the announcement that Amgen Inc has agreed to pay $415 million in cash for DeCODE Genetics of Iceland, long considered to be a leader in population-based studies of human disease.