It’s no mystery why Scipher Medicine Corp. successfully raised $110 million in a series D financing round to further develop the company’s precision medicine platform. The company aims to address one of most modern medicine’s most challenging enigmas: how to eliminate the cost and adverse effects associated with the prescription of expensive medications that provide life-changing outcomes for some and no benefit for others. The new funds boost Scipher’s total funding to $227 million, of which $192 million has come into the Waltham, Mass.-based company’s coffers in the last 12 months.

Two studies published this January by separate research teams have conclusively identified Epstein-Barr virus infection as the cause of multiple sclerosis, and the mechanism by which the immune response to EBV infection triggers an attack on the myelin sheath, the insulation that enables high-speed neuronal transmission.

Antibodies to the EBNA1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus can cross-react with glial cell adhesion molecule (GlialCAM), a component of the myelin sheath. The findings are the first to report a mechanism for how viral infections can cause autoimmune disorders.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. has bought a small portfolio of drugs from fellow U.S. biotech Saol Therapeutics Inc., adding the skeletal muscle relaxant baclofen to its portfolio and boosting its pipeline with a potential therapy to treat spasticity in a deal worth $83.5 million plus royalties.

A split decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit could give Novartis AG’s blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug, Gilenya (fingolimod), a little more breathing room from unlicensed generics.

PARIS – Pcube-Lab BV has closed a $4.75 million funding round to deploy its eye tracking technology, Neuroclues, in Europe and the U.S. This technique helps with early diagnosis of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.

Biopharma companies that have agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice millions of dollars to resolve allegations that they illegally used charities to cover patients’ Medicare copays for brand drugs are finding those settlements may be just the beginning of their legal woes, even when the companies admit no liability in the settlement.

Rune Labs Inc. is on a mission to make the mysteries of the brain easier to read for both clinicians and biopharma companies. Having a fresh $22.8 million in a series A financing on the books will no doubt make the goal easier to reach.

Rune Labs Inc. is on a mission to make the mysteries of the brain easier to read for both clinicians and biopharma companies. Having a fresh $22.8 million in a series A financing on the books will no doubt make the goal easier to reach. The new round pushed total funding for development of the San Francisco-based company’s brain data software platform to $30.1 million.