News

Bristol Myers Squibb Co has launched its second preclinical collaboration with Immatics NV in order to explore the potential of an antibody-like bispecific molecule as a treatment for solid tumours. The newest agreement, announced on 14 December, gives BMS exclusive rights to an engineered bispecific molecule consisting of a receptor that binds to a cancer target and a region that recruits T cells to the tumour site to become activated. The upfront payment is $150 million.

Depixus SAS has raised €30.6 million in Series A financing to support development of technology that can extract information from DNA, RNA and proteins, thereby generating new insights into the function of the human genome. The round was co-led by Lansdowne Partners and the PSIM Fund which is operated by Bpifrance on behalf of the French state. The new financing brings the company’s total equity and grant funding to more than €41 million.

Switzerland-based Vifor Pharma Group is to be acquired by CSL Ltd of Australia for CHF 10.9 billion ($11.7 billion) creating one of the largest companies in nephrology and cardio-renal therapies. The merger comes less than a month after Vifor itself purchased two smaller companies.

The US Food and Drug Administration has placed clinical holds on six trials of the HIV medicine islatravir after some trial participants showed a decrease in total lymphocyte and CD4+ T cell counts – a sign of weakened immune systems. Developed by Merck & Co Inc, islatravir is being studied for both the treatment and prevention of HIV-1 infection. “With the FDA’s clinical hold, no new studies may be initiated,” the company announced on 13 December.

A new study by researchers from the University of Oxford has shown that the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has the potential to increase infections among the population, including individuals who have already been vaccinated. However there is no evidence thus far that the variant can cause severe disease, hospitalisation or deaths in vaccinated populations.

Sanofi SA is to expand its vaccine capacity with the acquisition of a privately-owned Austrian company, Origimm Biotechnology GmbH, that has a candidate product for acne vulgaris, a common, chronic skin disease. Acne vulgaris is linked to the bacterium Cutibacterium acnes, a complex Gram positive bacteria. The therapeutic vaccine, which is based on recombinant proteins, entered clinical studies in the third quarter.

A French start-up company with assets in-licensed from Sanofi SA has raised €12 million in seed financing to discover potential drugs for heart failure. Corteria Pharmaceuticals SAS will use data from subpopulations of patients with cardiovascular disease to identify targets for new therapies.

A venture capital company backed by Swedish and Danish institutions has closed its first fund at €122.3 million. Designed to support promising life science companies in the Nordic region, Eir Ventures I AB has already invested in nine companies, two of which have completed initial public offerings (IPOs) on the US Nasdaq market.

The Roche Group has established a partnership with a drug discovery company in Salt Lake City, US to identify novel targets for new neurology drugs and for one indication in oncology. The partner, Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc, has technology for searching large biological and chemical datasets for information on biological relationships, particularly in neuroscience.

The New England Journal of Medicine has published data from a Phase 3 trial of Dupixent (dupilumab), a widely prescribed anti-inflammatory drug which was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for children with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe asthma. Data from the trial formed the basis of a US approval and have been included in a regulatory filing with the European Medicines Agency.