News

Exscientia Ltd has enlisted the support of one of the world’s largest asset managers, BlackRock Inc, to support its expansion in artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery. Funds managed by BlackRock joined the company’s Series C investment round in early March, bringing total proceeds to the UK company up to $100 million.

The European Medicines Agency is recommending approval of Evrysdi (risdiplam) to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) – a rare and often fatal disease affecting neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. SMA is caused by mutations in the SMN1 gene that encodes for the survival motor neuron protein.

Merck & Co Inc has voluntarily withdrawn the metastatic small cell lung cancer indication for Keytruda (pembrolizumab) following the results of a Phase 3 study which didn’t support the terms of its earlier accelerated approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA awards accelerated approvals to certain drugs, based on surrogate endpoints, but confirmation of clinical benefit needs to be verified in subsequent trials.

UK-based Oxular Ltd has secured $37 million in venture finance to advance its lead product for diabetic macular edema (DME) into Phase 2 as well as support earlier stage ophthalmologic products. The venture capital firm Forbion led the financing, which included existing investors IP Group, NeoMed and V-Bio Ventures.

A single dose vaccine developed by Janssen Biotech Inc to prevent Covid-19 has been cleared for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, the third vaccine for the coronavirus to be allowed onto the US market. The two other authorisations were for vaccines developed by a partnership between BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc, and by Moderna Inc.

Merck & Co Inc is to acquire Pandion Therapeutics Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company with candidate products designed to treat autoimmune diseases. Merck will tender $60 in cash for each share of the company, representing a deal value of $1.85 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021.

A new treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) has been approved in the US which uses a technology called exon skipping to bypasss a specific genetic mutation in the production of dystrophin, a protein which strengthens muscle fibers and protects them from injury. By skipping the exon, normal amounts of dystrophin protein are produced. DMD is a genetic disorder characterised by dystrophin loss and a progressive deterioration of muscle.

Genmab A/S moved a step closer towards its goal of becoming a fully integrated biotech in 2020 following a licensing deal with AbbVie Inc which pushed revenue higher and put the Danish company on course to co-develop three bispecific antibody compounds. The agreement, concluded in June, delivered an upfront payment of $750 million, helping to deliver significantly higher revenue for the year.

A new UK company focused on developing small molecule drugs for rare neuromuscular and metabolic diseases is being prepared for launch following the publication of research on mitochondrial dysfunction in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. The company, MitoRx Therapeutics, is being spun out of the University of Exeter. Jon Rees, a life sciences consultant, has been named chief executive.

UCB SA of Belgium and Microsoft Corp have entered into a multi-year strategic collaboration to use UCB’s medicinal capabilities and artificial intelligence from Microsoft to discover new drugs. The collaboration builds on work the two companies have already done as part of the Covid Moonshot project, an international effort to develop an antiviral treatment for Covid-19. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.