The third spin-off from the entrepreneurship partnership program (EPP) launched in April by Merck KGaA biopharmaceutical division Merck Serono SA in conjunction with the closure of its Geneva headquarters, Asceneuron SA is focusing on one of biotech's most elusive targets: Alzheimer's disease (AD). Launched in October with €5 million (US$6.4 million) in seed funding from Merck Serono, Asceneuron is seeking to advance Merck Serono's preclinical programs in AD and tau protein-related pathologies

Eporgen Venture SpA, an Italian early stage venture capital fund with a diversified investor base, has logged the first major transaction of its portfolio, the licensing of a therapeutic cancer vaccine program, GX301, from Genovax srl to Mediolanum Farmaceutici SpA. Terms were not disclosed, but Turin, Italy-based Genovax, a spin-off from the University of Genoa, is receiving an up-front payment and stands to receive milestones and royalties should GX301, a telomerase-targeting vaccine, reach

LONDON – NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB signed a deal for the development of its two lead mitochondria-sparing programs in China to add to a similar agreement in Europe that should see the two drugs through to commercialization in both markets. The two products, CicloMulsion for treating heart reperfusion injury following stenting and NeuroStat for traumatic brain injury (TBI), look like a perfect fit with new partner Sihuan Pharmaceutical, which claims it has the largest cardio-cerebral vascular

STOCKHOLM & UPPSALA, Sweden – The scaling up of university-based drug discovery research in the Stockholm-Uppsala region, just as AstraZeneca plc is exiting from that same activity, neatly encapsulates an industry trend that has created both headaches and opportunities for Europe's leading bioscience research centers. Employees and policymakers are still grappling with London-based AstraZeneca's decision, made back in February, to shutter its neuroscience R&D facility in Sodertalje, 20 miles

Lanthio Pharma BV found an influential backer for its peptide technology in the shape of antibody developer MorphoSys AG, which has participated in its €4.8 million (US$6.2 million) Series A round and which will help it to develop and commercialize its LanthioPep platform. Lanthio Pharma, of Groningen, the Netherlands, is part of a wave of companies that are seeking to impart drug-like specificity and stability to peptides, which are among nature's most important class of signal molecules. Its

LONDON – Apitope Ltd. is busy drawing up the business plan for a double-digit financing round to take its next two projects through Phase I development after triggering a key clinical milestone in its lead multiple sclerosis program. The autoimmune disease specialist is in the process of selecting the lead candidate in the two programs, against Factor VIII intolerance and Graves' disease. "We are looking to do the private placement early next year. We want funds to get the two products to the

LONDON – Vaccines that use synthesized messenger RNA (mRNA) as their building blocks may be able to provide rapid protection against emerging infectious diseases in the future, a new study suggested. The study, which used influenza virus to model the effectiveness of the novel type of vaccine, showed that after just one or two injections, it was possible to protect mice, ferrets and pigs against a normally lethal viral challenge. As well as the effectiveness of the vaccination, one of the most

Continuing Europe's recent push in cell therapy development, TxCell SA raised €12.4 million (US$16. 1 million) in a Series C round to fund a Phase IIb study of its OvaSave autologous cell therapy in patients with refractory Crohn's disease. The new cash will fund the company through to the end of 2015, by which time it should have top-line data from the placebo-controlled trial, which is scheduled to get under way by the fourth quarter of 2014. "It's not yet finalized, but it will be in the

Ablynx NV, of Ghent, Belgium, and Algeta ASA, of Oslo, Norway, signed a research collaboration to evaluate a targeted thorium conjugate by combining Algeta's thorium-227 alpha-pharmaceutical payload with nanobodies generated by Ablynx. Under terms of the collaboration, Ablynx will provide access to nanobodies against a specific, undisclosed target and Algeta will provide access to chelation and conjugation technologies, as well as to its alpha-emitter thorium-227. Both companies will contribute

LONDON – There may not be that much competition, but AmpliPhi Biosciences Corp. now claims to be the world's leading bacteriophage company, following completion of its merger with Sydney, Australia-based Special Phage Services (SPS) Pty. The next task for CEO Phil Young is to move the merged company's listing off the Pink Sheet Over-the-Counter market (Pink Sheet:APHB) and on the Bulletin Board, opening up AmpliPhi's shares to a wider range of potential investment funds, with the aim of

Health spending across Europe fell in 2010 for the first time since 1975 as the economic crisis started to bite and governments started to cut back on expenditures, according to a newly published report on health care spending in Europe. After an average annual growth of 4.6 percent between 2000 and 2009, health spending per person declined by 0.6 percent in 2010, according to the report, "Health at a Glance – Europe 2012." The study was published Friday by the European Commission and by the

Zealand Pharmaceuticals A/S is set to join what is still an all too select club of European biotechnology firms with a product approval under their belts. On Friday, the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended for approval its once-daily glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist Lyxumia (lixisenatide, AVE0010) for treating Type II diabetes. The drug is recommended for "treatment of adults with Type II diabetes mellitus to achieve

LONDON – A compound isolated from a traditional Chinese medicine has specific anti-inflammatory properties and could offer a way to develop a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs. The compound, called cordycepin, is present in the Cordyceps fungus, which parasitizes the hibernating caterpillars of a type of moth found in Tibet. Researchers in the UK now have established that cordycepin reduces the accumulation of inflammatory gene products in airway smooth muscle cells – one of the types of

LONDON – Dutch start-up AIMM Therapeutics NV has inked a deal with a pharma partner, providing the means to ramp up development of its novel antibody platforms, and has attracted a leading immunologist and former head of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Jan de Vries, as CEO to spearhead that effort. The pharma partner has not been named, but de Vries said the agreement involves an equity investment, underpinning plans to boost commercialization activities, including advancing two

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics Holding NV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said its shares were delisted from the NYSE Euronext Nov. 16, in accordance with previous announcements. The company, which developed gene therapy Glybera (alipogene tiparovec), restructured in March due to financial difficulties and handed over its assets to privately held Amsterdam-based uniQure BV. Glybera gained official approval earlier this month. Bavarian Nordic A/S, of Kvistgard, Denmark, said the Department

LONDON – Adaptimmune Ltd. has published the first clinical data on its genetically modified T-cell technology, saying infusion of the engineered cells is safe, well tolerated and leads to a high response rate in a high-risk multiple myeloma population. "It looks like it's working," said Helen Tayton-Martin, chief business officer. "The trial is not controlled, but compared to other published trials in multiple myeloma, it is beyond what you would expect to see in terms of response rates," she

LONDON – A new low-cost technique will allow scientists to easily monitor all the genes and proteins being switched on and off in different cells under different circumstances. The method could be used to track, for example, how gene expression varies when human cells are infected with a virus or after a candidate drug is added to them. Not only that, the method can identify when a gene is switched on but no more protein is produced. The ability to detect such anomalies could help researchers

LONDON – Complix NV is in the thick of a €15 million to €20 million (US$19 million to $25 million) Series B fundraising, as it prepares to move the first of its intracellular-targeting Alphabodies into Phase I trials in 2013. The company is in a race against other technology platforms that are staking out the interface between traditional antibody structures and formal computer-aided small-molecule drug design, with the aim of modulating intracellular protein targets. "We believe Complix is

Without much fanfare, Bone Therapeutics SA has begun a pivotal double-blinded Phase III trial of a cell therapy for osteonecrosis, a debilitating bone disorder affecting young adults. The company, based in Gosselies, Belgium, is recruiting 130 patients with early stage osteonecrosis of the hip. They will receive either the company's therapy, Preob, which comprises an expanded population of autologous preosteoblast cells, or a placebo comprising a bone marrow graft. Patients in each arm also