• Atox Bio Ltd., of Ness Ziona, Israel, reported top-line results from a Phase IIa trial showing that AB103, a short peptide immune regulatory therapy, produced meaningful improvement across multiple endpoints vs. placebo in patients with necrotizing soft-tissue infections.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• Kancera AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, said results of a collaboration with a research group at the Karolinska Institute showed that the survival of an aggressive type of human cancer cells from pancreatic cancer is ROR-1-dependent.

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.

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.