The Belgium-based cell therapy company Promethera Biosciences SA has branched out into biologics with the acquisition of Baliopharm AG, a Swiss developer of therapies for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and cancer. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd, which is developing compounds for respiratory diseases by targeting unwanted mucus in the lungs, has raised £29 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round co-led by Versant Ventures and the Novartis Venture Fund.
Orchard Therapeutics Ltd has come closer to its goal of becoming a global supplier of gene therapies following an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Plc to take over that company’s portfolio of gene therapies for rare diseases.
Wilson Therapeutics AB is to be bought by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc for $855 million in a deal that underscores the potential of the Swedish company’s lead product for Wilson disease, a rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from regulating copper. The disease can lead to liver and brain damage.
Recent positive data from a Phase 2b trial of patients with multiple sclerosis illustrates the role of pathogenic HERV-W protein in the genesis of the disease. The protein was neutralised by an antibody therapy developed by GeNeuro SA, the first time this has been shown in a clinical trial.
MorphoSys AG has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to make an initial public offering of its shares on the Nasdaq market. The offering will consist of up to 8.3 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), the German company said on 9 April.
Novartis appears set to become a first mover in gene therapy again with the agreed acquisition of AveXis Inc, a company with a late-stage gene replacement therapy for treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
A Phase 3 trial in which a combination of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and the IDO1 inhibitor epacadostat were being studied in patients with metastatic melanoma has been stopped after failing to show a benefit in progression-free survival, according to Incyte Corp and Merck & Co Inc.
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP) has separated from the Rothschild banking group to become an independent firm owned by its 55 employees and trading under the new name Andera Partners. The move comes as European venture capital becomes more international, and competition for promising assets increases.
France-based Cellectis SA has acquired a new partner for its portfolio of products for cancer that are based on donor T cells that have been engineered to target specific antigen on cancer cells. The allogeneic portfolio had been licensed to Pfizer Inc and Servier.