Denmark-based Galecto Biotech AB has raised €79 million in a Series C financing round to support a Phase 2/3 trial of its lead product for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease characterised by a progressive decline in lung function.
AbbVie Inc is to take full control of a joint cystic fibrosis (CF) research and development programme with Galapagos NV with the goal of bringing a triple combination CF therapy to the market. Currently in early clinical development, the programme consists of potentiator and corrector drug molecules that are intended to increase the activity of mutated copies of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein that causes the disease.
France-based Enterome SA has out-licensed its lead microbiome-directed product for the treatment of Crohn’s disease to Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd for the treatment of Crohn’s disease, generating an upfront payment of $50 million, a future equity investment and potential milestone payments of $640 million.
The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy has invested in a chimeric antigen receptor T cell technology developed by Xyphos Biosciences Inc of South San Francisco, US which claims the platform is safer and more effective than existing approaches. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
Amgen Inc has made a £50 million equity investment in Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd of the UK as part of its strategy of using genetic data to develop new medicines. Amgen’s subsidiary deCODE Genetics of Iceland currently uses Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing technologies to conduct genome research including the identification and validation of new drug targets.
Novartis has announced plans to expand its presence in the field of radiopharmaceuticals with the acquisition of Endocyte Inc, a US company with drug conjugation technology for developing targeted therapies with companion imaging agents. The deal is valued at $2.1 billion.
A new gene therapy company that uses chemogenetics-based technology has been launched in the US with plans to develop a product aimed at managing chronic neuropathic pain. CODA Biotherapeutics Inc is based in South San Francisco, California and made its debut on 12 September with a $19 million in Series A financing.
Austria-based Themis Bioscience GmbH has entered into a licencing agreement with Max-Planck-Innovation GmbH, the technology transfer arm of the Max Planck Society of Germany, for exclusive rights to an oncolytic measles virus platform that could be used to develop new oncology drugs.
The technology was jointly developed by Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The field of RNA therapeutics received a boost on 10 October when a group of investors provided Series A funding to Gotham Therapeutics Inc, a company founded by Versant Ventures to develop drugs that target RNA-modifying proteins. The new company will be exploiting discoveries in the field of epitranscriptomics, a discipline which describes the biochemical modifications of RNA within a cell. These modifications help determine the degree to which genes are translated into proteins.
GW Pharmaceuticals Plc has raised $300 million in a secondary offering on the US Nasdaq, providing it with capital to commercialise its recently approved cannabinoid medicine Epidiolex for the treatment of seizures associated with the childhood epilepsies, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.
Epidiolex was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on 25 June. The medicine is currently under review at the European Medicines Agency with a decision expected in the first quarter of 2019.