News

The investment group Medicxi Ventures (UK) LLP has raised €400 million for a third life science fund with the goal of investing across the life science sector from discovery to late-stage clinical programmes. Medicxi III closed in just six weeks, reflecting a renewed confidence in the sector.

Denmark-based Genmab A/S has raised $581.8 million from its initial public offering on the US Nasdaq market following a decision by underwriters to fully exercise their over-allotment option and buy more shares. Prior to the option exercise, Genmab had secured gross proceeds of $505.9 million. The final total was announced on 19 July. 

Netherlands-based AM-Pharma BV has raised €116 million from a European syndicate of investors to conduct a Phase 3 trial of a drug for sepsis-associated acute kidney injury – a condition for which no pharmaceutical treatment currently exists. The financing round will enable the Dutch company to complete development of its wholly-owned product recAP as an independent company. In 2015, Pfizer Inc took out an option to acquire AM-Pharma, but last year it let the option lapse. The US company still is a minority shareholder.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has acquired a private Swiss biotechnology company with a therapeutic cancer vaccine targeting late-stage colorectal cancer. AMAL Therapeutics SA has developed a vaccine that is based on a fusion protein designed to activate killer T cells to target and destroy a tumour while boosting immunological memory to prevent a relapse.

Gilead Sciences Inc has struck a $5 billion deal with Galapagos NV giving it rights to the Belgian company’s suite of small molecule drugs for inflammatory diseases as well as an equity stake in the company of up to 29.9%. The agreement also includes a pledge by Gilead to not increase its stake in Galapagos for 10 years.

Novartis, Amgen Inc and the non-profit organisation Banner Alzheimer’s Institute have stopped two pivotal studies of umibecestat, a candidate Alzheimer’s drug, because a review identified a worsening in some measures of cognitive function among patients. The trial was intended to run until 2025.

Slovakia has been added to the group of European countries whose pharma manufacturing inspections systems are on par with those in the US, enabling the Food and Drug Administration to automatically recognise products produced in the country’s factories.

BioNTech SE has generated substantial financial support for its portfolio of personalised cancer medicines with a Series B financing of $325 million – one of the largest single private financing rounds for a European biotechnology company. The fundraising was led by Fidelity Management & Research Co with participation from both new and existing investors.

A group of international scientists has successfully repressed the transcription of the mutant gene causing Huntington’s disease, enabling animal models with the disease to show clear improvements in a range of important functions. Results of the research were published online on 1 July in the journal Nature Medicine. The studies were carried out by Sangamo Therapeutics Inc and the CHDI Foundation, a non-profit organisation devoted to Huntington’s disease research.

Evotec SE has announced the launch of a new company, Breakpoint Therapeutics GmbH, to discover compounds modulating the DNA repair pathway as a source of potential treatments for cancer. In so doing, it joins a number of enterprises that see DNA damage response as a way of developing drugs for patients who don’t respond to existing treatments.