Leading pharma companies have pitched into Sofinnova Partners’ new accelerator fund, which has exceeded the target and closed at €165 million (US$180 million). In what is said to be the largest pan-European biotech accelerator fund, Amgen Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb Co. and Pfizer Ventures will get an inside track on startups formed around academic research, as the nascent companies are shaped up for formal investment rounds.
In a move that surprised many across the health care sector, the U.K. government decided to scrap NHS England, the body which runs the national health service (NHS), and bring it under the control of ministers. “I don’t see why a decision about £200 billion of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arms-length body, NHS England,” said Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
Alteogen Inc. signed its first billion-dollar partnership this year for ALT-B4 technology through two separate contracts with Astrazeneca plc’s U.K.- and U.S.-based Medimmune subsidiaries worth up to $1.35 billion combined.
Maxion Therapeutics Ltd. is poised to extend the therapeutic reach of antibodies into the vast field of G-protein coupled receptors and ion channel targets, after raising $72 million in a series A round.
The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) juggernaut powers on, with Japan’s Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. set to acquire Araris Biotech AG for up to $1.14 billion. Of that, $400 million will be up front, with the remainder tied to milestones with a maximum value of $740 million, around the progress of three ADCs for treating solid and hematological cancers.
The €1.6 million (US$1.7 million) in seed funding that MSInsight SAS recently raised is vital for the next phase of growth of the company, Arnaud Cutivet, president and co-founder, told BioWorld. MSInsight is developing a software, MSIcare, which uses sequencing technology to detect microsatellite instability (MSI) in solid tumors and liquid biopsies.
With its Altix AI.i launch, GE Healthcare Technologies Inc. aims to upgrade the user experience and efficiency of its catheterization lab and electrophysiology procedures. The new capabilities apply to the Cardiolab, Mac-Lab and Combolab products. The Alitx Ai.i software upgrades received U.S. FDA clearance in December. CE mark is pending.
Alteogen Inc. signed its first billion-dollar partnership this year for ALT-B4 technology through two separate contracts with Astrazeneca plc’s U.K.- and U.S.-based Medimmune subsidiaries worth up to $1.35 billion combined.
Term sheets are being drawn up with potential pharma partners after Torqur AG reported positive interim results from an ongoing phase II trial of bimiralisib topical gel in the treatment of actinic keratosis.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s decision this week to snag Bluebird Bio Inc. spinout 2seventy Bio Inc. for $102 million net – just weeks after investors bid $30 million for Bluebird itself – seemed to place a final blow on what was once a promising gene therapy company. The space in general has struggled to make business sense out of the one-time therapies that often involve complicated manufacturing and exorbitant prices, despite the life-changing value that gene therapies bring to patients. But despite some recent setbacks, biopharmas continue to plow forward with promising research in the field.
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