Finance, Grants, Deals

Celgene Corp has contracted the UK artificial intelligence company Exscientia Ltd to supply drug discovery services over a period of three years in order to identify new candidate molecules for three programmes in the areas of oncology and autoimmunity.

The alliance is one of several for Exscientia which has also secured collaborations with Roche, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi SA and Evotec AG. Celgene, which is soon to be taken over by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, is also an investor in Exscientia.

Pfizer Inc has entered into an option agreement to acquire Vivet Therapeutics SAS, a privately-held French company with a gene therapy for Wilson disease, a rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from regulating copper. The disease can lead to liver and brain damage.

Pfizer will initially take a 15% equity interest in Vivet with an exclusive option to acquire the remaining shares in the future. The exercise of the option is linked to the performance of the therapy in a Phase 1/2 trial.

A new research collaboration which will study the human microbiome as a source for potential cancer therapies is being undertaken by Enterome SA of France and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, US. The partners will explore whether bacteria in the human microbiome generate antigens which are similar to those found on certain tumours. To the extent that there is a molecular similarity, these bacterial antigens could be used for immunotherapies.

The German biotech Probiodrug AG and a US-based cooperative have received a $15 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test Probiodrug’s small molecule drug in patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.

The grant will help finance a Phase 2b study of the drug PQ912 which inhibits glutaminyl cyclase, an enzyme that triggers the production of a peptide which is a constituent of Alzheimer’s disease plaques. The grant is expected to be dispersed over four years.

The London-based investment group, Arix Bioscience Plc, has co-led a $63 million investment round in Imara Inc, a US company developing a small molecule drug to treat sickle cell disease, a rare genetic blood disorder that can lead to organ injury. Joining Arix as co-leader of the Series B round was Orbimed Advisors.

A young Danish company, SNIPR BIOME, that is using CRISPR/Cas technology to fight bacteria has raised $50 million in a Series A financing round co-led by Life Sciences Partners (LSP) and existing investor Lundbeckfonden Emerge. The North-East Family Office of Copenhagen, Denmark and Wellington Partners of Munich, Germany also participated in the round.

MolMed SpA and Genenta Science SRL, both of Italy, have renewed and extended an oncology collaboration with a view to starting trials of a candidate drug that could treat both haematologic malignancies and solid tumours. Genenta has developed an ex-vivo immune-gene transfer technology to enable the targeting of immunomodulatory molecules to tumour-infiltrating monocytes and macrophages. The goal is to deliver an immunomodulatory molecule into the tumour microenvironment triggering an immune response against multiple tumour antigens.

Biogen Inc is to acquire Nightstar Therapeutics Plc, a gene therapy company spun out from the University of Oxford and financed by Syncona, which has a product in Phase 3 for the treatment of choroideremia, a rare retinal disorder. The US biotech company will pay $25.50 in cash for each share of Nightstar, valuing the company at approximately $800 million.

Calypso Biotech BV has completed a €20 million Series A round to advance a preclinical antibody for autoimmune indications into human studies. The financing round was announced on 20 February by INKEF Capital, which co-led the round together with Gilde Healthcare.

Syncona Ltd, an active investor in cell and gene therapy, has joined the Novartis Venture Fund to provide CHF 35 million (€31 million) in Series A funding to Anaveon AG, a Swiss start-up which is developing biologics for cancer.

Founded in December 2017, Anaveon has a preclinical product targeting the interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptor. The biologic is an agonist which is expected to enhance a patient’s immune system to respond to tumours and work better than other IL-2 products.