COPENHAGEN – The fog that wafted in from the Baltic and shrouded the city of Copenhagen early Monday was just a fog. It had no additional significance as a metaphor for the current state of Europe's biotechnology sector. European firms – particularly those listed on Nasdaq – are playing their part in what will be a record-breaking or near-record-breaking year for the global biotech industry in terms of equity financing, M&A transactions, drug licensing deals and drug approvals. The confidence among some of Europe's biotech industry leaders was palpable during the opening sessions of BIO-Europe, notwithstanding the downward stock market plunge in October, triggered by President Trump's and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar's pledge to introduce international reference pricing to the Medicare Part B drug payment scheme.
DUBLIN – Shares in Bioarctic AB rose 15 percent Friday following Abbvie Inc.'s decision to exercise an option on its preclinical alpha-synuclein antibody program, triggering a $50 million payment to the Stockholm-based biotech firm.
DUBLIN – Shares in several European antibody developers, including Affimed NV, Argenx SE and Morphosys AG, posted healthy gains Thursday on the release of abstracts in advance of the 60th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), which kicks off on Dec. 1 in San Diego.
DUBLIN – One of the main priorities for Ivan Coulter, newly appointed CEO of Atxa Therapeutics Ltd., is to raise additional capital to enable the early stage company to move its lead program into the clinic in 2020.
DUBLIN – Galecto Biotech AB raised €79 million (US$89.9 million) in a series C round to take its lead galectin-3 inhibitor, TD-139, into a phase II/III trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and to move two additional compounds employing the same mechanism into trials in other fibrotic indications and, potentially, cancer.
DUBLIN – Shares in Innate Pharma SA rose by as much as 39 percent during trading Tuesday as the French biotech and its partner, Astrazeneca plc, rejigged their existing oncology alliance, which now guarantees a minimum $241.85 million in cash to Innate, with the potential for a whole lot more – almost $5.2 billion – to come in option fees and milestone payments.
DUBLIN – Enterome SA is getting $50 million up front plus up to $640 million more in clinical development, regulatory and commercial milestones in a global licensing and co-development deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., under which the two companies will jointly take forward its lead drug, EB-8018, which is currently in development for Crohn's disease. Osaka, Japan-based Takeda has also committed to invest $15 million in Paris-based Enterome at a future date.
DUBLIN – Innate Pharma SA has found what it claimed is a "compelling" efficacy signal for its first-in-class immune checkpoint inhibitor antibody, monalizumab, in a phase II combination trial with cetuximab in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).
DUBLIN – Shares in Pharnext SA gained 25 percent Tuesday after the company announced that its lead drug, PXT-3003, hit the primary endpoint of a phase III trial in type 1A Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT1A). Pharnext now plans to file for approval in the U.S. and Europe in the second half of 2019.
DUBLIN – Carrick Therapeutics Ltd. in-licensed a clinical-stage ovarian cancer drug from BTG plc, which it is now planning to move into pivotal studies. Deal terms were not disclosed.
