DUBLIN – Avectas Ltd. raised $10 million in equity finance to fund the scale-up, validation and commercialization of its virus-free gene transfer technology. 

DUBLIN – Poxel SA and development partner Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. Ltd. are on track for a regulatory submission of their type 2 diabetes drug, Imeglimin, in Japan next year, after the first of three phase III trials delivered a positive result. Two other phase III studies are also due to read out this year, and the partners aim to have the drug on the market by 2021.

DUBLIN – Poxel SA and development partner Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. Ltd. are on track for a regulatory submission of their type 2 diabetes drug, imeglimin, in Japan next year, after the first of three phase III trials delivered a positive result. Two other phase III studies are also due to read out this year, and the partners aim to have the drug on the market by 2021.

DUBLIN – Medigene AG is banking $10 million up front and could earn up to $1 billion more in milestones from a multiproduct immuno-oncology alliance with Cytovant Sciences, a newly launched 'Vant that will develop cell therapies for cancer patients across East Asia.

DUBLIN – By the end of the year, Adrenomed AG will have a pretty good idea whether its lead drug candidate, adrecizumab, is a runner in what is one of the most challenging of all indications. A phase II trial of the drug in patients with early septic shock has already passed an interim efficacy analysis in half of the 300 patients the study is enrolling. The company aims to complete the study this year – and it could then be in a position to contemplate applying for conditional marketing authorization in Europe.

DUBLIN – The March meeting of the EMA's Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP), the first to be held in its new home in Amsterdam, must have been a rather quiet affair. Just one new therapy was up for consideration – Bluebird Bio Inc.'s lentiglobin cell and gene therapy for beta-thalassemia – and it duly came out with a positive vote, which paves the way for a formal European Commission approval in the second quarter. The treatment, which comprises autologous CD34 cells transduced with a lentiviral vector, lentiglobin 3305, expressing a working copy of the beta-globin gene, will be marketed as Zynteglo.

DUBLIN – Investor interest in Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals AG's Antibody-Catch technology for selectively removing pathological auto-antibodies from the circulation was "very astonishing," CEO and co-founder Ruben Herrendorff told BioWorld. The result was a solid CHF22.5 million (US$22.6 million) series A round led by Sofinnova Partners and co-led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), which will enable it to complete phase I development of its lead drug candidate, to prepare for a phase II trial and to progress several other earlier stage indications.

VIENNA – In addition to the internet and the graphical user interface, a cure for the common cold could soon feature among the many technological achievements supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Early last year, London-based startup Virion Biotherapeutics Ltd. received £3 million (US$4 million) in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's research funding arm to develop a broad-spectrum antiviral technology, based on defective interfering viruses, which it calls Therapeutic Infectious Particles (TIPs). The company has maintained a relatively low profile since its inception in 2017, but it has recently completed a reboot, with a new name and a new leadership team in place, and it set out plans to move to the clinic in the next couple of years during the BIO Europe meeting.