AurorA Science, a holding company created to support innovation in the life sciences, including gene therapy, has been launched in Milan, Italy with €10 million in capital. The investors are Rottapharm Biotech and Italfarmaco, two companies with an established presence in the sector. The investors have the means to increase their commitments in the future.
A new gene therapy company, Ikarovec Ltd, has been launched in the UK to develop a treatment for diabetic macular oedema, the most common cause of sight loss in people with diabetes. The company’s founder Peter Widdowson was previously chief executive of Quethera, another UK ophthalmic gene therapy company which was sold to Astellas Pharma Inc in 2018.
Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc has returned to Nasdaq to raise new capital with an underwritten public offering of 24 million American depositary shares (ADSs) at a price of $4 per ADS. The issue raised a net $89.8 million after underwriters exercised their option to purchase additional shares. The company will use the proceeds to advance the development of its portfolio of immunotherapies for cancer which it is doing independently and through partnerships.
Netherlands-based Azafaros BV has raised €25 million in a Series A financing round to advance compounds for rare metabolic disorders. The round was led by Forbion Capital Partners, with Participation from BioMedPartners and founding investor BioGeneration Ventures. Azafaros was created in 2018 on the basis of discoveries by scientists at Leiden University and Amsterdam University Medical Center.
Sandoz, the generics division of Novartis, has completed the acquisition of the Japanese business of Aspen Global Inc, expanding its presence in Japan, the third largest market for generics in the world. Aspen’s portfolio consists of about 20 products with a focus on ana+esthetics and specialty medicines. The acquisition gives Sandoz a dedicated sales, marketing and medical organisation enabling it to deal directly with hospitals.
Sandoz is paying €300 million upfront for the assets and €100 million after the closing of the deal.
Quench Bio Inc, a start-up biotech incubated by venture capitalists, has been launched in Cambridge, Mass, US to develop small molecule drugs for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The launch was announced on 27 January concurrent with $50 million in Series A financing.
Switzerland-based GeNeuro SA has raised €17.5 million in a private share placement, enabling it to complete a new clinical trial of its experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis temelimab. The trial will be conducted at the Karolinska Institutet and the Academic Specialist Center in Stockholm, Sweden and is expected to report results in the second half of 2021.
Autolus Therapeutics Plc has raised a gross $80 million from a secondary offering on Nasdaq to support the ongoing clinical development of its engineered T cell therapies for cancer. After deducting expenses, the net proceeds for the company were $74.2 million. Autolus is a portfolio company of Syncona Ltd and has a pipeline of candidate products for the treatment of haematological malignancies and solid tumours.
The company made an initial public offering of shares on Nasdaq in 2018 and went back to the market the following year to raise $100.8 million.
Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc has returned to Nasdaq to raise new capital with an underwritten public offering of 21 million American depositary shares (ADSs) at a price of $4 per ADS. The issue raised a net $78.1 million after deducting the underwriting discount and other expenses. Adaptimmune made its initial public offering on Nasdaq in 2015.
Germany-based BioNTech SE has taken steps to strengthen its position in personalised cancer therapies with the acquisition of Neon Therapeutics Inc of the US for $67 million. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company was founded in 2015 by experts in neoantigen biology. The company’s lead product, NEO-PTC-01, is a personalised neoantigen-targeted T cell therapy posed to enter Phase 1 in patients with metastatic melanoma who are refractory to checkpoint inhibitors. Neoantigens are newly formed antigens that have not been previously recognised by the immune system.