News

Storm Therapeutics Ltd has disclosed data from an animal study of a new small molecule inhibitor of an RNA modifying enzyme which showed activity against cancer. The study results were announced on 18 September at a meeting in Cambridge, UK attended by scientists from Europe and the US who are at the forefront of the new science of RNA epigenetics.

RNA epigenetics describes the chemical markers on messenger RNA that carry genetic information from DNA to a cell’s protein-manufacturing factories. When this process is modified by enzymes it can lead to disease.

Safety concerns once again triggered the stoppage of a late-stage Alzheimer’s disease trial with a BACE inhibitor, a small molecule drug intended to limit amyloid-beta production. Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc announced the discontinuation of two studies with elenbecestat on 13 September following a review by the trials’ data safety monitoring board.

Crescendo Biologics Ltd has entered into collaborations with two UK universities to accelerate development of its lead product for tumours expressing prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). The product, CB307, is due to enter the clinic in 2020.

Separately Crescendo appointed Steward Kay, formerly of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, as its chief business officer.

The European Investment Fund (EIF), together with institutions in Germany and Austria, has launched a new fund to support early-stage drug discovery projects sourced predominantly from academic institutions in both countries.

The fund, KHAN Technology Transfer Fund I GmbH (KHAN-I), is based in Dortmund, Germany and has capital of €60 million. Half of the initial capital, or €30 million, is being provided by the EIF, which is part of the European Investment Bank Group. The fund will invest in either new project ideas covered by collaboration agreements or in start-up companies.

A French immunology company founded in 2013 has raised €39 million in a Series B financing round to advance the development of a drug candidate for patients with septic shock. Inotrem SA is being supported by Morningside Ventures, which led the round, along with the evergreen investor Invus. Existing investors Andera Partners, Sofinnova Partners and BiomedInvest, also participated in the round.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to make a $55 million equity investment in BioNTech SE as part of a collaboration aimed at developing potential HIV and tuberculosis vaccine and immunotherapy candidate drugs. Total funding under the collaboration could reach $100 million through potential future grant funding from the Gates Foundation. The additional funds would be used to underwrite the evaluation of the candidate products in the clinic and to start new infectious disease projects.

The Italian gene therapy company Genenta Science SRL has raised €13.2 million in a new financing round to progress novel treatments for multiple myeloma and glioblastoma that deliver immunomodulatory molecules into the tumour environment. The company has received regulatory approval to start Phase 1/2 clinical trials in both cancer indications.

The new financing brings total capital raised by the company up to €30.2 million since its founding in 2014 as a spin-out from the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.

Margrethe Vestager has been nominated for a second term as EU competition commissioner in a re-make of the union’s executive body that will see women take 13 out of the 27 top jobs and a 28-year old Lithuanian assume responsibility for the environment and oceans.

The Dutch vaccine developer DCprime BV has entered a research collaboration with the University Medical Center of Groningen to design a therapeutic vaccine for ovarian cancer using an approach that targets residual disease after a standard-of-care treatment.

The goal of the partnership is to design a novel relapse vaccine for ovarian cancer and to prepare for a clinical trial in ovarian cancer patients. DCprime will work with the university’s department of obstetrics and gynecology which is led by Hans Nijman.

UK based Theragnostics Ltd has obtained rights to an inhibitor of the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) enzyme in order to develop a new diagnostic for cancer. The licensing agreement is with AstraZeneca Plc and also includes an option to develop a radionuclide-labelled PARP inhibitor. AstraZeneca markets the PARP inhibitor Lynparza.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.