Finance, Grants, Deals

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.

A new French company working in the field of stem cell culture has raised €7.1 million in a Series A financing round to advance its technology for mass producing stem cells. TreeFrog Therapeutics SAS was founded in November 2018 on the basis of years of academic research.

France-based DNA Script SAS has raised $38.5 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to accelerate development of its first products based on new technology for the synthesis of nucleic acids. Among the products are oligonucleotides.

The funding round was led by Life Sciences Partners of the Netherlands. Bpifrance joined the round alongside existing investors Illumina Ventures, M. Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Kurma Partners and Idinvest Partners.

Novartis is continuing to restructure its portfolio with the planned acquisition of a prescription medicine for dry eye disease from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. It is paying $3.4 billion upfront for the product, which has been approved in multiple markets including the US, Canada and Australia. Potential milestone payments are up to $1.9 billion.

Announced on 9 May, the transaction comes just one month after Novartis spun-off its Alcon eye care division whose portfolio consists of devices including surgical instruments for cataract and retinal surgery.

BioNTech SE has taken a further step in building its portfolio of antibody assets with the acquisition of an early clinical-stage antibody and preclinical assets from MabVax Therapeutics Holding Inc of San Diego, US. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

H. Lundbeck A/S is poised to expand its portfolio of medicines for neurological diseases with the acquisition of Abide Therapeutics Inc, a US company whose lead product is being developed for Tourette syndrome and neuropathic pain. The product, ABX-1431, inhibits the serine hydrolase monoacylglycerol lipase (MGLL), a key enzyme in the brain.

According to the US National Cancer Institute, the compound has potential for use in the  treatment of various central nervous system (CNS) diseases because of its analgesic and anti-neuroinflammatory activities.

Confo Therapeutics NV, which has a new approach to drug discovery, has raised €30 million in a Series A financing round – one of the largest A financing rounds in Belgium. The round was led by the Dutch early-stage investor BioGeneration Ventures and co-led by Wellington Partners with participation by eight other institutions including Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), a co-founder of the company.