A new Irish-German medical device company, OneProjects Ltd, has raised €11 million in a Series A financing round to develop imaging technology for cardiac arrythmias, including atrial fibrillation. The financing was led by Netherlands-based Life Sciences Partners BV, investing from its LSP Health Economics Fund 2. It was co-led by the Atlantic Bridge University Fund of Ireland, with participation from Enterprise Ireland.
Germany’s BioNTech SE has reached an agreement to place shares with the Singaporean investment group Temasek Holdings Private Ltd and other investors to raise $250 million for the ongoing development of its messenger RNA (mRNA) portfolio which includes an experimental vaccine programme for COVID-19. The transaction is expected to close in early to mid-August. It consists of an investment of $139 million in BioNTech shares and $112 million in four-year mandatory convertible notes.
The German biotech company Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH has become the latest European enterprise to list its shares on the US Nasdaq market in order to finance the development of immunotherapies for cancer. However Immatics chose an uncommon strategy for gaining market entry: it executed a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
Hong Kong-based Hutchison China MediTech Ltd (Chi-Med) has raised $100 million from a share placement with a global equity firm to support the development of its oncology business. The placement was with General Atlantic which has offices on four continents and a significant life science portfolio.
Netherlands-based BioGeneration Ventures has closed its fourth fund BGV IV at €105 million to continue its work building new companies in Europe around single assets or technology platforms. New investors included Industriens Pension of Denmark and KfW Capital of Germany, while Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, an investor in BioGeneration’s third fund, also participated in the new vehicle.
The France-based microbiome company Enterome SA has closed a €46.3 million Series E financing round to advance the development of a microbiome derived product for cancer. The financing was supported by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, which also has a collaboration with the company, and the investors Seventure Partners and Nestlé Health Science.
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines arm of Sanofi SA, has reached an agreement with Translate Bio of the US to expand a two-year old collaboration in order to bring forward a candidate vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine candidate uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and is expected to be ready for a first human trial in the fourth quarter of this year.
Epidarex Capital, the Edinburgh, UK-based venture capital firm, has closed a new fund to support early-stage UK life science companies. The fund raised £102.1 million at the close, of which £50 million represents a commitment from Enterprise Capital Funds, a government-supported scheme to help the growth of young businesses.
Oxford Biomedica Plc has raised a gross £40 million in a private share placement to support its ongoing gene therapy business which includes the manufacture of lentiviral vector for the Novartis product Kymriah. Kymriah was the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy to be approved for cancer. Most recently, Oxford Biomedica secured a contract with AstraZeneca Plc to manufacture an adenoviral vector based vaccine for COVID-19.
ISA Pharmaceuticals BV of the Netherlands has expanded a collaboration with Regeneron Inc to include a new trial for the companies’ combination treatment for human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16)-induced cancers. The trial will recruit patients with oropharyngeal cancer, a type of head and neck cancer that affects tissues of the throat.