Rigontec GmbH, which is developing RNA-based immunotherapeutics for cancer and viral diseases, has completed a €29.25 million series A funding with a final €15 million tranche issued to its venture capital shareholders.
Camstent Ltd, which is developing a bacteria-resistant polymer coating for medical devices, has raised £850,000 from a combination of existing and new investors to bring its first product to market – a polymer coated catheter designed to prevent urinary tract infections.
Bayer AG has raised its non-binding offer to buy Monsanto Co for a third time since May to $127.50 per share. A report in The Wall Street Journal on 5 September indicates that the two companies are having constructive talks.
Preliminary data from a national immunisation programme in the UK for the meningitis B vaccine Bexsero has shown the vaccine to be effective in infants up to the age of one year. Bexsero is currently the only meningococcal B vaccine licensed in Europe.
In keeping with the widespread interest in precision medicine, OncoDNA SA, a privately held company that identifies cancer treatment options for doctors and patients, has raised €7.7 million in an equity placement.
Cell Medica Ltd has strengthened its hand in the field of T cell therapy with a new collaboration around T cell receptor technology. Having recently expanded a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, US, and acquired the Delenex Therapeutics AG antibody company in Switzerland, the company has now entered into a partnership with University College London (UCL) to develop genetically engineered T cell receptor products for cancer.
Using a combination of human neural stem cells and 3K3A-APC, a recombinant variant of human activated protein C, researchers have been able to dramatically increase the production of nerve cells in mice with stroke-induced brain damage. The findings were reported on 22 August 2016 in Nature Medicine.
The European Medicines Agency is recommending a tightening of its guideline on first-in-human clinical trials to provide better protections for volunteers and a new approach to evaluating protocols that cover a number of different study parts.
Research involving mice has suggested for the first time that niches of neural progenitor cells in the adult brain may be vulnerable to infection from the Zika virus. The findings were reported in the 18 August issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
A review of patients who had experienced a stroke and were treated with an experimental stem cell therapy has shown the therapy to be safe and linked to improved neurological function. Data from a two-year follow-up of the patients were published in The Lancet on 20 August.