Finance, Grants, Deals

The Swedish specialty pharmaceutical company Calliditas Therapeutics AB has reached an agreement to acquire a controlling 62.7% interest in Genkyotex SA of France whose lead product candidate, setanaxib, is in clinical development for primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), a fibrotic orphan disease. The deal is the first step towards a full acquisition of the company whose total consideration is approximately €32 million, not including potential milestones of up to €55 million for regulatory approvals of setanaxib. 

Germany-based CureVac BV, which is developing a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, has made an initial public offering of its shares on the US Nasdaq market raising approximately $213.3 million. The offering is expected to close on 18 August.

It consists of 13.3 million common shares at a price of $16 per share Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.9 million shares at the offer price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The shares were scheduled to start trading on 14 August.

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The European Commission has concluded an advance purchase agreement with AstraZeneca Plc for the supply of up to 400 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine which it is developing with the University of Oxford. Announced on 14 August, the agreement covers the initial purchase of 300 million doses, with an option for an additional 100 million. The price was not disclosed. However in a separate announcement, AstraZeneca said it would supply the vaccine “in an eqitable manner at no profit during the pandemic.”

A syndicate led by Cowen Healthcare Investments has raised $60.8 million for the late-stage development of an antifungal agent that has been designed to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections. The candidate drug, olorofim, has been developed by F2G Ltd, a company co-located in the UK and Austria. It is in a Phase 2b study and has received a breakthrough therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Besides Cowen, the syndicate includes the existing investors Novo Holdings, Morningside Ventures, Brace Pharma Capital and Advent Life Sciences.

Immunic Inc, which is co-located in the US and Germany, has raised gross proceeds of $103.5 million to support development of its pipeline of small molecule immunology drugs, the most advanced of which is being investigated for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The underwritten public offering of 5.75 million shares was priced at $18 per share, a discount from its closing price on Nasdaq on 4 August of $19.43.

SVB Leerink was the bookrunning manager for the offering. Wedbush PacGrow and Ladenburg Thalmann acted as co-managers.

Freeline Therapeutics became a public company on 7 August with the issue of 8.8 million American Depositary Shares on the US Nasdaq market raising gross proceeds of $158.8 million for the development of its portfolio of gene therapy products. The lead product, FLT180a, is in a Phase 1/2 study for patients with haemophilia B, a blood clotting disorder caused by a missing or defective Factor IX clotting protein.

The ADSs, which represent 8.8 million ordinary shares, were priced at $18 per ADS. They will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FRLN.

T-knife GmbH, a new company with technology for humanising T cell receptors derived from transgenic mice, has raised €66 million in a Series A financing round in order to develop therapies to treat solid tumours. Current gene based cell therapies for cancer have been highly successful in treating haematological malignancies. However thus far they have been unable to overcome multiple barriers for the treatment of solid tumours.

Evotec SE is to develop antisense oligonucleotide drugs for a number of indications under a new drug discovery collaboration with Secarna Pharmaceuticals GmbH of Munich, Germany. Secarna was founded in 2015 and has more than 15 programmes in development focusing on oncology, immunology, ophthalmology as well as cardiometabolic diseases.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The agreement was announced on 5 August, only a week after Vico Therapeutics BV of the Netherlands raised $31 million for its preclinical antisense oligonucleotide platform.

A group of international investors led by Life Sciences Partners has raised $31 million for Vico Therapeutics BV, a young Dutch company with a preclinical antisense oligonucleotide asset which is being developed for rare central nervous system (CNS) diseases. The Series A financing was co-led by Kurma Partners with participation by Polaris Partners and others.

Sangamo Therapeutics Inc is to help develop genomic medicines for neurodevelopmental disorders under a new agreement with Novartis valued at up to $795 million. The two companies will use Sangamo’s zinc finger protein transcription factor technology to upregulate the expression of three undisclosed genes involved in diseases which include autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.