Grey Wolf Therapeutics Ltd, an Oxford, UK based immuno-oncology company, has raised £10 million in a Series A financing round to advance new small molecule drugs for cancer. The financing was provided by Andera Partners (formerly Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners) and Canaan Partners of the US.
Avacta Group Plc, which is developing a new type of protein therapeutic, is to license certain assets to Moderna Therapeutics Inc against a potential therapeutic target which has been part of an ongoing research collaboration between the two companies. In an announcement on 4 February, Avacta said that Moderna has exercised an option to the technology. As a result, it may receive undisclosed payments for reaching future clinical development milestones, as well as royalties on future product sales.
The UK contract research organisation Metrion Biosciences Ltd has entered into a collaboration with LifeArc (formerly Medical Research Council Technology) to discover new drugs in the field of neurology. The goal is to identify selective small molecule modulators of a specific ion channel target which gene association studies have identified as likely to be involved with neurological diseases.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has entered into a cancer collaboration with Merck KGaA of Germany which features a direct challenge to Keytruda’s (pembrolizumab) dominant position in lung cancer. Announced on 5 February, the partnership involves the co-development and commercialisation of the Merck asset M7824 (bintrafusp alfa) which is an investigational bifunctional fusion protein immunotherapy.
Sphere Fluidics Ltd has raised $2 million from investors to accelerate growth and support the sales of its single cell analysis system which is used to recognise biological targets and improve antibody discovery.
The funds were provided by Greenwood Way Capital, Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund and 24Haymarket.
Sphere Fluidics is located in Babraham, Cambridgeshire, UK and Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, US.
The company announced the funding on 29 January 2019.
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The Belgian molecular diagnostics company Biocartis Group NV has raised €55.5 million in a private share placement to support the commercialisation of its molecular diagnostics, particularly for the detection of cancer.
The company’s diagnostics platform uses a real-time polymerase chain reaction system to derive information from biological samples in a wide variety of settings. The company is expanding in oncology and currently has tests supporting the detection of melanoma and colorectal and lung cancers.
BioNTech AG is to expand its drug discovery capabilities following an agreement with MAB Discovery GmbH to acquire that company’s antibody generation unit. The two companies, both based in Germany, have been collaborating since 2013. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
UK-based Autifony Therapeutics Ltd has achieved a first milestone under an option agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, triggering an undisclosed payment for work on small molecule potassium channel modulators for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.
Nanobiotix SA has announced plans to make a public offering of its shares in the US with the submission of a registration statement Form F-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The timing and size of the issue haven’t been decided.
A partnership between German and US companies aims to develop gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases that would cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver therapeutic agents to the brain.
The collaboration is between Sirion Biotech GmbH, which specialises in viral vector technologies for gene and cell therapies, and Denali Therapeutics Inc, a developer of treatments for diseases of the central nervous system.