News

Bpifrance, the French national investment bank, has issued a grant valued at €10 million to Osivax SAS, a biotech company based in Lyon, to advance development of a broad-spectrum influenza vaccine candidate. The financing is part of a larger initiative by the French government to promote medical innovation and prepare for future pandemics and infectious diseases. Osivax will use the funds to prepare its vaccine, OVX836, for a Phase 2b field efficacy trial against a broad range of circulating influenza strains.

Galapagos NV is to acquire two companies with a presence in cell therapy as it takes steps to broaden its business under new leadership. The Dutch company has reached separate agreements to purchase CellPoint BV, a manufacturing company in the Netherlands, and AboundBio Inc, a US drug discovery company with an antibody library and antibody engineering capabilities.

Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd of Finland has reported top-line, 12 month survival data for its antibody drug bexmarilimab showing that a significant number of patients who benefited from the treatment were still alive at 12 months. The Phase 1/2 MATINS study is investigating the safety and efficacy of bexmarilimab monotherapy in 10 different metastatic or inoperable solid tumour cohorts.

A Phase 2 study of an experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment designed to slow or prevent cognitive decline in people carrying a specific genetic mutation failed to meet its primary endpoints, the Roche Group announced on 16 June. The placebo-controlled trial was evaluating the monoclonal antibody crenezumab as a potential treatment for early-onset Alzheimer’s in people carrying the Presenilin 1 E280A mutation.

A France-based company advancing a therapy for both solid tumours and haematologic malignancies has raised €96 million in a Series C financing round to establish clinical proof-of-concept for its lead antibody molecule. ImCheck Therapeutics SAS is located in Marseille and supported by a large group of investors including Andera Partners, Earlybird Venture and a philanthropy fund managed by the US Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Two French companies have joined forces to co-develop manufacturing technologies for AAV-based gene therapies. Coave Therapeutics is to contribute its expertise on viral vectors to the collaboration, while ABL, a contract development and manufacturing organisation, will provide production skills and laboratory space in Lyon.

New data for Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy to be approved for a cancer, have shown durable remission and long-term survival for the children and young adults treated with the therapy. The developer, Novartis, presented the data at the 2022 European Hematology Association Hybrid Congress on 12 June.

Interim results from a Phase 3 trial of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate for older adults have shown the treatment to be effective with no unexpected safety concerns, the developer GlaxoSmithKline Plc announced on 10 June. The vaccine contains a recombinant subunit prefusion RSV F glycoprotein antigen combined with an adjuvant. The adjuvant, AS01, is proprietary to GSK and is used with several of the company’s other products.

Kimmtrak (tebentafusp), a bispecific protein for the treatment of uveal melanoma, has received three more regulatory approvals on the back of clinical data showing that it extends overall survival in patients with the rare and aggressive form of melanoma. Approvals have been issued by regulatory authorities in the UK, Canada and Australia, the developer Immunocore Holdings Plc announced on 8 June. This follows approvals earlier in the year in the US and EU.

An enzyme replacement therapy for two types of Niemann-Pick disease is being recommended for marketing by the European Medicines Agency. If formally approved by the European Commission, the drug, Xenpozyme (olipudase alfa), would be the first specific treatment for the disease, which is a rare genetic metabolic disorder.