Finance, Grants, Deals

A spin-out of Harvard University in Cambridge, US, has raised seed funding of $5 million to develop a therapy for the delivery of healthy mitochondria into cells where these organelles are impaired. Cellvie Inc received the funding from an investment group led by Kizoo Technology Capital which supports start-up companies and early-stage portfolios. Founded in the US and headquartered near Zurich, Switzerland, Cellvie is developing cell-based medicines for treating mitochondria dysfunction.

An Israeli company which is developed new antimicrobial peptides has won €10.8 million in European Union funding to conduct early clinical studies of a product directed against infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria. Omnix Medical Ltd of Jerusalem has developed its technology by studying how insects use their innate immune systems to kill bacteria – an evolutionary mechanism that goes back millions of years.

MiNA Therapeutics Ltd has secured a new collaboration for its small activating RNA (saRNA) technology which can potentially restore normal cell function by activating gene expression. The partner is Servier of France which has agreed to pay up to €220 million for access to the technology to identify the first target for an undisclosed neurological disorder.

Small activating RNAs are short, double-stranded oligonucleotides that selectively increase gene transcription. Proponents of the technology say it can reach disease targets that are inaccessible with other approaches.

Ireland-based Neurent Medical Ltd has raised $25 million in Series B financing to prepare its lead product for chronic rhinitis for a regulatory application and commercialisation in the US. The product is a medical device to treat symptoms of chronic rhinitis and other inflammatory conditions. The funding round was led by new investor LSP (Life Sciences Partners), from its Health Economics Fund 2, and co-led by Atlantic Bridge. Fountain Healthcare Partners also participated as a returning investor.

Merus NV of the Netherlands has secured a research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co to develop three bispecific antibody therapies for cancer. The deal gives Merus a financial lift while enabling Lilly to enter the bispecific antibody space which is currently occupied by other large pharma companies such as Amgen Inc and Roche.

A new US company has been launched to progress a small molecule drug to inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and other RNA viruses. CoviCept Therapeutics Inc has received seed funding of $2.3 million from Forbion, the Netherlands-based life sciences venture capital firm. The new company is based in San Diego, US.

The venture capital firm Forbion has announced a large financing for one of its portfolio companies, NewAmsterdam Pharma BV, which is planning Phase 3 development of a cholesterol lowering drug for patients who aren’t well controlled on statins. The oversubscribed €160 million Series A round was led by Forbion and co-led by Morningside Ventures and Ascendant BioCapital.

Sanofi SA is to acquire Kymab Ltd of the UK in order to gain full rights to a monoclonal antibody therapy, KY1005, with potential for treating a wide variety of immune-mediated and inflammatory disorders. The French pharma group is to pay $1.1 billion upfront for the company in addition to milestone payments of up to $350 million. The lead asset reported positive data from a Phase 2a study of patients with atopic dermatitis in August 2020. The same molecule is being studied in acute graft-vs-host disease and other immune disorders.

Angelini Pharma of Italy has agreed to spend up to $960 million to acquire a two-year old Swiss company with rights to an antiepileptic drug for the treatment of partial-onset seizures. The target company, Arvelle Therapeutics GmbH, was launched in 2019 with start-up capital of $207.5 in order to bring the antiepileptic, cenobamate, to the European market.

Japan-based Sosei Group Corp has entered a global collaboration and licencing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Plc to discover small molecule agonists of a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) associated with inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal immune disorders. It will use technology developed by Heptares Therapeutics, a UK company it acquired in 2015. The deal is the newest collaboration for Sosei, which is using the Heptares’ structure-based drug design platform to grow its business.