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The European Commission launched a new proposal on 19 March to stimulate private investment in industry and harmonise rules for trading in securities. The plan would essentially try to encourage citizens with large cash savings in banks in the EU to invest a portion of these assets in industry, including in small and medium size companies, to stimulate innovation and boost growth. The plan, called the savings and investment union, is a new version of an earlier capital markets union proposal that was introduced in 2014 but failed to gain traction.

Francis Collins, a geneticist and director of the US National Institutes of Health for 12 years, retired from his position on 28 February, with a tribute to his colleagues and the institution that they support. “The National Institutes of Health is the world’s foremost medical research institution. It has been rightfully called the ‘crown jewel’ of the federal government for decades. It has been the greatest honour of my life to be part of this institution in various roles over the last four decades,” he said in a statement.

A new biotech company has been launched in Seattle, US, and Singapore, with the goal of advancing the technology for antibody-drug conjugates - treatments for cancer that use an antibody and linker to deliver a cytotoxic agent to cancer cells. The company, Callio Therapeutics Inc, is developing ADCs that would be equipped with more than one cytotoxic payload. The company says this structure could increase the efficacy of ADCs, a drug class which is attracting developers across the industry.

Valneva SE, developer of the world’s first vaccine against chikungunya virus, is forecasting higher sales this year and more investment in R&D as it advances new products in the clinic against infectious diseases. Product sales this year are expected to reach €170 to €180 million, up from €163.3 million in 2024. This will drive positive cash flow for the business enabling an increase in R&D spending to between €90 to €100 million, up from €74.1 million in 2024.

InflaRx NV has extended its cash runway into 2027 following a public share offering in February that raised €28.7 million. The forecast was issued on 20 March in the German company’s 2024 annual report which showed an operating loss of €53 million on the back of significant outlays for research and development. R&D expenditure was €35.4 million, more than twice the sums spent to cover the company’s other business expenses. Founded in 2007, InflaRx is building a portfolio of drugs for inflammatory diseases that target the complement system, a key component of the innate immune system.

Zealand Pharma A/S is partnering with the Roche Group to co-develop a candidate drug for obesity discovered by the Danish company with potential as both a monotherapy and in combination with other drugs. This includes in combination with an obesity asset owned by Roche. The drug is petrelintide, a long-acting amylin analogue which has delivered reductions in body weight of up to a mean 8.6% in early clinical studies. Amylin is a peptide hormone that restores sensitivity to leptin, a satiety hormone that enables people to feel naturally full after having eaten a meal.

A study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has revealed an unexpected immune function of proteasomes, the cellular machinery primarily known for protein degradation. The research, published in Nature on 5 March, demonstrates that proteasomes play a direct role in innate immunity by generating antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that combat bacterial infections. This discovery not only deepens our understanding of cellular defence mechanisms but also opens new avenues for addressing antibiotic resistance.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new allogeneic encapsulated, cell-based gene therapy for a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects the macula, a portion of the eye that processes central vision. The product, Encelto (revakinagene taroretcel) is a therapy that delivers a recombinant protein to the retina to slow down the progression of the disease. Delivery is by way of a surgical intravitreal implant by an ophthalmologist.

A UK biotech launched in 2023 to use protein degradation technology to develop new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases has raised $31 million in seed funding from a selection of UK and US investors. The company, TRIMTECH Therapeutics Ltd, has a pipeline of small molecule candidate therapies for disorders including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases. The drugs are intended to target the body’s ubiquitin-proteasome system to mark proteins for degradation. The proteins are toxic aggregates associated with a range of neurodegenerative and inflammatory disorders.

UK-based Centauri Therapeutics Ltd has selected a lead compound for clinical development capping a decade of research into potential agents for treating serious bacterial infections. The compound, as yet unnamed, has been designed to target Gram-negative infections in the lung. Infections from Gram-negative bacteria are typically difficult to treat because the bacteria are surrounded by a cell wall in addition to an outer membrane containing a complex molecule known as a lipopolysaccharide. By comparison, Gram-positive bacteria do not have this outer membrane.