News

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.

Following a first quarter in which revenue increased by 27%, Evotec SE expects its business will grow by 10% this year – confirming earlier forecasts. The march forward reflects continued demand for its drug discovery services as well as ongoing milestone payments from drug development partners such as Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Second Genome Inc.

AstraZeneca Plc’s Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor Calquence, already approved in the US for mantle cell lymphoma, has delivered positive results in a Phase 3 trial of previously-treated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The trial showed a statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful improvement in progression-free survival and will stop early, the company announced on 6 May. Calquence was administered as a monotherapy and compared with a combination of rituximab and a physician’s choice of either idelalisib or bendamustine.

MorphoSys AG has reported positive data from a single-arm Phase 2 study of its investigational monoclonal antibody tafasitamab with the cancer drug lenalidomide in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma. The drug, previously known as MOR208, is being prepared for a regulatory submission to the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year.

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.

Italian-born Mauro Ferrari, who studied medicine in the US and advised the US National Cancer Institute, is to be the next president of the European Research Council, an EU body that funds investigator-driven scientific research. Professor Ferrari will take up his position on 1 January 2020. He is known within the science community for his expertise in leveraging nanotechnology to treat and diagnose cancer.

Another attempt to produce an effective therapy for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive brain cancer, has failed. This time it was a study testing the checkpoint antibody Opdivo (nivolumab) plus radiation in patients with newly diagnosed disease. The Phase 3 trial, known as CheckMate-498, did not meet its primary endpoint of overall survival at final analysis, according to the sponsor Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

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.

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 expects revenue and profit to retreat this year after an exceptional performance in 2018 when strong sales and a rolling restructuring project delivered an operating margin of 29.3%. This year revenue is expected to be within a range of DKK 16.3-16.7 billion compared with DKK 18.1 billion (€2.4 billion) in 2018.