A saga involving CureVac AG, one of Europe’s most promising biotechs, entered a new phase on 16 March when the European Commission offered to provide up to €80 million in financial support to help the company scale up development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus 2019-nCoV, also known as SARS-CoV-2.
The Swiss oncology company, Numab Therapeutics AG has raised CHF 22 million (€21 million) in a Series B round to advance a portfolio of cancer therapies based on multi-specific antibodies that can engage two or more antigens at once. The new investors include 3SBio and its subsidiary Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, which recently concluded a collaboration with Numab, giving the Chinese company rights to up to five antibody molecules in its portfolio.
Gilead Sciences Inc is to expand its presence in immuno-oncology with the acquisition of Forty Seven Inc whose lead product, magrolimab, is in clinical development for the treatment of several cancers. Gilead will acquire Forty Seven for $95.50 per share in cash giving a transaction value of about $4.9 billion. The deal is expected to close during the second quarter.
Immunocore Ltd has secured $130 million in Series B funding from new and existing investors to progress its portfolio of biologic drugs for cancer, infection and autoimmune disease. The company’s technology involves engineering T cell receptors and linking them to an antibody fragment that can activate the immune system to kill a cancer or a viral cell. Proceeds from the offering will enable to company to advance two wholly owned clinical stage programmes for chronic hepatitis B and a compound targeting PRAME, an antigen expressed on a wide range of tumours.
The UK synthetic biology company Evonetix Ltd has raised $30 million in a Series B financing round led by Foresite Capital, a San Francisco, US-based venture capital company. Evonetix will use the proceeds for the development of technology enabling the synthesis of DNA on a chip. The silicon chip, which is made by a process technology known as MEMS, integrates physics with biology, and controls the synthesis of DNA at many thousands of independently controlled reaction sites or pixels on the chip surface.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is to acquire Qiagen NV of the Netherlands, significantly expanding its service offering to the global life sciences industry. The transaction values Qiagen at approximately $11.5 billion, which includes the assumption of Qiagen’s $1.4 billion in net debt. The offer price of €39 per share represents a premium of about 23% to the closing price of Qiagen’s shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 2 March.
Bicycle Therapeutics Plc has entered into a collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to develop new therapies for cancer using its short peptide technology. The deal is potentially valued at up to $1.7 billion, giving the 11-year old company significant new resources to develop its technology. The company’s scientific founders are Gregory Winter, who invented a technique for humanising mouse monoclonal antibodies, and Christian Heinis, a researcher in the field of peptide therapeutics.
A new Belgian company has launched with €8.4 million in seed capital to develop therapies for solid tumours by investigating the interactions between perivascular macrophages and the tumour vasculature. Based on discoveries by Peter Carmeliet and Massimiliano Mazzone, the company will select the most promising targets for drug discovery and validate lead programmes for further development towards the clinic.
Pheno Therapeutics Ltd has been launched in the UK with Series A funding of £5 million to develop new treatments for multiple sclerosis that would halt progression of the disease by targeting the nervous system. Current therapies mainly focus on modulating the immune system in order to reduce the severity and frequency of relapses.
OMass Therapeutics Ltd, an Oxford University spin-out that is using mass spectrometry to discover new drugs, has raised an additional £27.5 million in an extended Series A financing, bringing total proceeds from the round up to £41.5 million. The new capital will be used to progress a pipeline of small molecule therapeutics for patients with immunological and genetic disorders, enabling the company to bring its lead programme into preclinical development. The latest funding was supplied by the existing investors Syncona Ltd and Oxford Sciences Innovation.