LONDON – Abingworth has cast off Brexit and pandemic woes to close its latest fund, Bioventures 8 at $465 million, exceeding the target of $375 million by a significant margin, and closing its hard cap.

DUBLIN – Amid a bitter dispute between the European Commission (EC) and Astrazeneca plc over supplies of the latter’s SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the EC’s drug regulator, the EMA, recommended approval of the product in question, COVID-19 Vaccine Astrazeneca (formerly AZD-1222).

LONDON – A fourth COVID-19 vaccine is on the road to approval in Europe, with Novavax Inc. announcing positive interim data from the phase III U.K. trial of NVX-CoV2373. The vaccine was 89.3% effective at a time when there was a high rate of infection in the country, and in the face of the newly identified variant, B 1.1.7, which is more transmissible. There also was positive data, though slightly less sparkly, from a phase IIb study in South Africa, where NVX-CoV2373 showed 60% efficacy in preventing mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 disease.

LONDON – There is “a realistic possibility” that infection with the B 1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 is associated with a 30% to 40% increased risk of death compared to earlier variants of the virus, according to scientists on the U.K. government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group. That conclusion is based on studies by three university groups, linking community PCR testing to mortality.

LONDON – A new national consortium of virologists has been set up to systematically assess how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 affect key outcomes such as effectiveness of vaccines and therapies, transmissibility of the virus and the severity of COVID-19 infections. Now is the critical time to do this, as the level of both natural and vaccine-conferred immunity that might drive natural selection is increasing, said Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, who is leading the G2P-UK (Genotype to Phenotype-UK) project.

LONDON – The 1,246 pages that make up the U.K./EU post-Brexit trade deal have “one paragraph we can build on,” said Steve Bates, chief executive of the Bioindustry Association (BIA), giving his initial reaction to the document published late on Dec. 24. That one paragraph refers to the setting up of a joint working group on medicinal products. It says the EU and the U.K. “shall endeavour to cooperate with a view to strengthening, developing and promoting adoption and implementation of internationally agreed scientific or technical guidelines.”

LONDON – The U.K. is to make treatment with interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitors standard of care for critically ill COVID-19 patients after a randomized trial found the arthritis drugs significantly improve survival.

LONDON – Controversy has erupted over COVID-19 vaccines dosing after the U.K. said it is to prioritize giving as many people as possible a single dose of the two currently approved products, rather than two doses three or four weeks apart, as scheduled on their labels. The move prompted a sharp rebuke from FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation, who said any such change “is not rooted in the science.”

DUBLIN – European biopharma, like the rest of the global industry, scaled new heights in 2020 from an investment perspective. European firms collectively raised $12.682 billion from the private and public equity markets, as well as substantial levels of debt and grant funding. It was a bumper year for both venture capital investment and for Europe’s growing cadre of listed companies.