News

UniQure NV has concluded an investigation of a patient who had a preliminary diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) whilst participating in the gene therapy trial HOPE-B for haemophilia. In a statement issued on 29 March, the company said “it is highly unlikely the HCC was caused by etranacogene dezaparvovec.” The company has shared the data with the US Food and Drug Administration, which put a clinical hold on the trial in December 2020.

Medigene AG has reported the discovery of novel immunogenic tumour specific antigens derived from the non-coding regions of the human genome. The German biotech company presented the finding at the virtual annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research on 10 April.

Vaccitech Plc, co-inventor of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19, has has made a regulatory filing in the US for an initial public offering of its shares on the Nasdaq market. The size of the offering had not been decided as of 11 April, but investors were reportedly looking for a valuation of around $700 million taking into account the wide distribution of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine and its portfolio of other prophylactic as well as therapeutic vaccines.

Sanofi SA expanded its portfolio of new technologies with the acquisition on 9 April of the US preclinical stage biotech company Tidal Therapeutics which has developed an approach for reprogramming immune cells in vivo using messenger RNA (mRNA). “We anticipate that this next generation, off-the-shelf approach, has the potential to bring CAR T cell therapy to a much broader patient population,” said Frank Nestle, Sanofi’s chief scientific officer, in a prepared statement.

The first medical device to use artificial intelligence to detect colon cancer has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The device, GI Genius, was developed by Cosmo Artificial Intelligence Ltd and has shown an ability to detect lesions in the colon in real time during a colonoscopy. In a statement issued on 10 April, the FDA’s Courtney Lias said that “clinicians now have a tool that could help improve their ability to detect gastrointestinal lesions they may have missed otherwise.”

Allcyte GmbH of Austria has raised $6 million in seed financing to advance its artificial intelligence (AI) platform selecting treatments for late-stage blood cancers. The financing round was led by 42cap, Air Street capital, PUSH Ventures, Amino Collective and VP venture Partners. It follows results from a clinical trial which showed that the company’s real-time analysis of live tissue from cancer patients identified treatments for these patients that proved to be effective in 55% of cases.

A special purpose acquisition company, known colloquially as a blank cheque company, has been launched by Life Sciences Partners (LSP) of the Netherlands, the first such company to focus exclusively on European biotech. Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are proliferating on Wall Street, fuelled by low interest rates and a demand from investors for innovative assets.

Future Planet Capital, a London, UK-based investment group, has acquired Midven Ltd, one of Britain’s oldest venture capital firms, with a view to expanding its network of academic and public sector relationships in the life sciences. Announced on 8 April, the value of the transaction wasn’t disclosed.

Artios Pharma Ltd has negotiated its second major collaboration in four months for the use of its DNA damage response technology to help a partner develop new drugs for cancer. The newest deal is with Novartis, which has agreed to pay the UK company $20 million upfront for access to the platform as well as research funding and up to $1.3 billion in discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments.

The European Medicines Agency has concluded that unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. But overall, the vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks.