News

Hong Kong-based Hutchison China MediTech Ltd (Chi-Med) has raised $100 million from a share placement with a global equity firm to support the development of its oncology business. The placement was with General Atlantic which has offices on four continents and a significant life science portfolio.

After reviewing data from a US trial of remdesivir, the European Medicines Agency is recommending that the anti-viral treatment be given a conditional marketing authorisation to treat patients in the EU with COVID-19-associated pneumonia who require supplemental oxygen. The recommendation now goes to the European Commission for approval.

Netherlands-based BioGeneration Ventures has closed its fourth fund BGV IV at €105 million to continue its work building new companies in Europe around single assets or technology platforms. New investors included Industriens Pension of Denmark and KfW Capital of Germany, while Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, an investor in BioGeneration’s third fund, also participated in the new vehicle.

Emer Cooke, currently a director at the World Health Organization, has been nominated to become the new executive director of the European Medicines Agency, succeeding Guido Rasi whose term ends on 15 November. Ms Cooke is scheduled to address a committee of the European Parliament on 13 July, after which the appointment will be finalised.

The France-based microbiome company Enterome SA has closed a €46.3 million Series E financing round to advance the development of a microbiome derived product for cancer. The financing was supported by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, which also has a collaboration with the company, and the investors Seventure Partners and Nestlé Health Science.

Kymab Ltd has beaten back a challenge by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc to its transgenic mouse technology for creating antibodies following a decision by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The decision is important for Kymab, the smaller of the two companies, which has a pipeline of preclinical and early clinical antibody therapeutics to treat cancer and immune diseases. Regeneron had challenged Kymab’s foundational technology.

The US Food and Drug Administration is to set up a trial website to provide retrospective data on how patients responded to oncology treatments during a clinical trial leading up to the approval of a new drug. The data is already used by the agency in the drug review process but to date, has not been made publically available.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines arm of Sanofi SA, has reached an agreement with Translate Bio of the US to expand a two-year old collaboration in order to bring forward a candidate vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine candidate uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and is expected to be ready for a first human trial in the fourth quarter of this year.

Regulatory authorities in the US and EU have taken further steps to align their practices in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Officials from the two regions already hold regular conversations about issues relating to the authorisation of new medicines. Now they are broadening their discussions to consult on pandemic issues such as the use of real world evidence to better understand the epidemiology of COVID-19.

Epidarex Capital, the Edinburgh, UK-based venture capital firm, has closed a new fund to support early-stage UK life science companies. The fund raised £102.1 million at the close, of which £50 million represents a commitment from Enterprise Capital Funds, a government-supported scheme to help the growth of young businesses.