Finance, Grants, Deals

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is to provide $67 million over five years to help establish a new laboratory at the University of California to investigate how gene mutations cause disease and the role gene editing can play in discovering new treatments. The laboratory project is being led by Jennifer Doudna, co-inventor of the Crispr gene editing technology, and Jonathan Weissman, a leader in Crispr screening technology. Hal Barron, GSK’s chief scientific officer, has also played a role in launching the project. Dr Barron has been the CSO at GSK since January 2018.

The UK medical charity LifeArc has provided £1.5 million in seed funding to a four-year old company, Ducentis BioTherapeutics Ltd, that is investigating molecules for treating inflammation and autoimmune disease. Ducentis was co-founded in 2015 by Philip Huxley, an expert in drug discovery, and David Blackbourn, head of the School of Biosciences and Medicine at the University of Surrey, UK to exploit the CD200 axis. CD200 is a glycoprotein expressed on multiple cells and tissues which uses a receptor, CD200R, to transmit signals affecting responses in multiple physiological systems.

Evotec SE has expanded a partnership with Celgene Corp to identify new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This has triggering a milestone payment to the German company of $9 million.

Genmab A/S, one of Europe’s oldest antibody companies, has registered to make a public offering of American Depositary Shares on the US Nasdaq market of up to $500 million. The plans were disclosed on 28 May but as of 6 June the final size of the offering had not been decided. The company is currently listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen and is proposing the US listing to broaden its shareholder base.

Denmark-based Abacus Medicine A/S announced on 29 May that it was postponing an initial public offering planned for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange because of unfavourable market conditions. The parallel trade company was reportedly planning to raise €50 million to finance expansion.

The company’s biggest market is Germany where it sells drugs purchased at cheaper prices in other European markets.

Novo Holdings A/S is to make an equity investment of up to £53.5 million in Oxford Biomedica Plc which has grown a business around the supply of lentiviral vectors for third parties including Novartis, the developer of Kymriah, the first gene therapy for cancer to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Following the transaction Novo will have a stake of up to 10.1% in the UK company.

Evotec SE is to expand its pharmaceutical services business into biologics with the acquisition of Just Biotherapeutics Inc of Seattle, Washington, US. The deal will give the Germany-based company a capacity to discover and develop protein therapeutics in addition to its existing small molecule business. Evotec will pay an initial $60 million for the company, a figure that could rise to $90 million depending on the achievement of certain milestones within the next three years.

Syncona Ltd, an active investor in cell and gene therapy, has launched a new company, Quell Therapeutics Ltd, which will develop cell therapies to treat autoimmune conditions based on engineered T regulatory (Treg) cells. Tregs are a subset of T cells with the potential to down-regulate the immune system.

Rinri Therapeutics Ltd, a spin-out of Sheffield University in the UK, has received £1.4 million in seed funding from a European syndicate in order to advance a prospective stem cell therapy to restore hearing. The company aims to reverse neuropathic sensorineural hearing loss by repairing the damaged cytoarchitecture of the inner ear.

Storm Therapeutics Ltd has raised an additional £14 million in Series A money bringing the total for the early investment round up to £30 million. The new money includes funding from the new investor, Seroba Life Sciences, as well as from existing investors, Cambridge Innovation Capital, M Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, Taiho Ventures and IP Group

The extension will enable to the company to advance its preclinical pipeline of products that modulate RNA modifying enzymes for oncology.

Storm Therapeutics announced the new financing on 20 May 2019.