Aleva Neurotherapeutics SA of Lausanne, Switzerland has raised €9.5 million in a Series A round to support development of its implant technology for deep brain stimulation which would complement drug therapy for major neurological disorders.
A new UK spin-out dedicated to the technology of DNA repair has received £6 million in Series A funding from a venture capital syndicate led by Sofinnova Partners. The technology comes from the laboratory of Prof Stephen Jackson.
UK-listed Ark Therapeutics Plc has reported revenue of £0.4 million for the first half of 2011, unchanged from a year as it shifted its business strategy to bio-manufacturing and early-stage research and sold its wound-care business.
Novo A/S and SV Life Sciences have committed £8 million in a Series A round to a new UK ophthalmology company that has a portfolio of preclinical assets which are expected to be developed for diabetic macular edema.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has spun out technology for the treatment of hearing disorders into a new company called Autifony Therapeutics Ltd. The company is receiving £10 million in Series A funding from Imperial Innovations and SV Life Sciences.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved an antibody-drug conjugate for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma, the first approved treatment for this disease since 1977. The same drug was also approved for anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.
A team of European scientists has described how a member of the Janus kinase (JAK) family of proteins generates contractions in tumours thereby allowing cancer cells to migrate from their site of origin. The findings were published in the journal, Cancer Cell, on 16 August.
A team of international researchers has isolated 17 new broadly neutralising antibodies that may be effective against many variants of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The finding appeared online in Nature on 17 August.
An RNA-based therapeutic developed by AVI BioPharma Inc of the US has shown promise as a disease-modifying treatment for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder, according to an article in The Lancet.
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd is auditing clinical data for its broad-spectrum cephalosporin antibiotic, ceftobiprole, with a view to making a future regulatory filing. This follows problems with earlier studies conducted by licensee, Johnson & Johnson.