DUBLIN – It's the kind of deal that says a lot more about a company's scientific chops than about its financial prospects, but Erytech Pharma SA entered an agreement with SQZ Biotechnologies Inc., under which the latter firm will have exclusive access to Erytech's red blood cell (RBC) platform for therapies that modulate the immune system.
DUBLIN – Two years after announcing a first close, Vesalius Biocapital Partners SàRL has topped out its third fund, Vesalius Biocapital III (VB-III), at €120 million (US$136.6 million).
DUBLIN – Vaccine maker Valneva SE and Glaxosmithkline plc have unwound the final strands of a longstanding alliance, leaving the smaller firm to go its own way with the two surviving assets from the agreement, a vaccine against Lyme disease, which is currently in phase II trials, and a vaccine against chikungunya virus, which has completed a phase I trial.
DUBLIN – Imcyse SA raised €28 million (US$31.4 million) in a series B round and several million more in grant and debt funding to progress its Imotope therapeutic vaccine technology for inducing tolerance to autoantigens implicated in chronic autoimmune disease.
DUBLIN – Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy said it hopes to get its flagship program in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) back on track, following the Yoda pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic study of Traumakine (recombinant human interferon-beta 1a) in human volunteers, which demonstrated that concomitant administration of corticosteroids blocked the drug's action.
DUBLIN – ADC Therapeutics SA added $76 million in a belated extension to its series E round, taking the total raise to $276 million. The initial close of $200 million was back in October 2017, but progress with its two lead antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) prompted the latest injection of cash.
DUBLIN – Shares in Genmab A/S gained as much as 4.4% Tuesday on news of an option deal with the Janssen Biotech arm of Johnson & Johnson involving a next-generation successor to their current multiple myeloma blockbuster, Darzalex (daratumumab), which employs Genmab's Hexabody technology.
DUBLIN – Nerre Therapeutics Ltd. may have missed the primary endpoint of a phase IIb trial of its lead drug, orvepitant, in chronic cough, but clinically relevant and statistically significant signals on three secondary endpoints leave it convinced that it has an active drug on its hands. The company is now seeking an end-of-phase II meeting with the FDA and EMA to determine the next steps for the program.
DUBLIN – By the brutal, binary calculations of Wall Street, Olivier Brandicourt's four-year stint as CEO of Sanofi SA cannot be regarded as a success. The Paris-based pharma firm's stock is down by 18% over the period between April 1, 2015, the day before he took office, and June 6, 2019, the last day prior to the announcement of his departure.
DUBLIN – Inflarx NV's stock collapsed during early trading Wednesday on news that its lead drug IFX-1 missed the primary endpoint of a phase IIb trial in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). The stock was down over 90% during early morning trading, as the antibody-based Complement factor C5a inhibitor appeared to be no better than placebo. The news is a big shock for investors, who had pushed the stock to an all-time high as recently as April, in the expectation of positive news. The top-line data are anything but.
