Finance, Grants, Deals

AstraZeneca creates newco for six biologics

Country
United Kingdom

AstraZeneca Plc has spun out six compounds from its early-stage pipeline in inflammation and autoimmunity into a new company in order to share the cost of development with a group of financial institutions. The stand-alone company has Series A funding of $250 million.

Gilead gains rights to gene editing technology

Country
United States

A zinc finger nuclease gene editing technology is to be used to develop ex vivo cell therapies for cancer, under a new research collaboration between the Gilead Sciences company Kite and Sangamo Therapeutics Inc.

Addex gets investor support for CHF40 million capital increase

Country
Switzerland

A group of international investors including New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has agreed to support a CHF40 million (€34.65 million) capital raising initiative by Addex Therapeutics Ltd to bring its lead product for dyskinesia into registration studies.

Roche to acquire Flatiron Health

Country
Switzerland

Roche is to advance its strategy for delivering personalised medicines with the acquisition of Flatiron Health Inc, a company with technology for analysing real-world data from cancer patients. Roche is to pay $1.9 billion for the 87.4% of the company it doesn’t already own.

Pieris raises additional money from US IPO

Country
United States

Following the exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc has raised a gross $50.6 million from its initial public offering on the US Nasdaq market. This is an increase of $6.6 million from the time of pricing.

Gates Foundation funds Novartis drug

Country
Switzerland

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to provide $6.5 million to Novartis to support development of a preclinical compound that has potential to treat cryptosporidiosis, the second leading cause of infectious diarrhoea in children under two years of age.

Pieris raises $44 million in US IPO

Country
United States

An initial public share offering in the US for Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc has been priced at $8 per share and is expected to raise $44 million. The Nasdaq IPO will enable the company, a developer of protein therapeutics, to advance its bispecific drug candidate targeting the tumour microenvironment.

Synpromics works with UCL

Country
United Kingdom

Synpromics Ltd is bringing its technology for creating synthetic promoters into a partnership with a unit of University College London (UCL) in order to help researchers there develop gene therapies for blood-based disorders. The agreement was announced on 25 January.

Cognitive diseases targeted

Country
Belgium

A new Belgian company has been launched to develop therapies for cognitive disorders using intellectual property from UCB SA. The company has received Series A financing of €17 million from a syndicate of Belgian and international investors.

New money for heart monitoring device

Country
Ireland

Foundry Innovation & Research 1 Ltd (FIRE1) has raised €40 million in a Series C financing round to advance development of a medical device that uses digital technology to remotely monitor the health of patients who have had heart failure.