DUBLIN – Genentech's decision to move crenezumab into a second phase III trial in Alzheimer's disease represents yet another test of one of the drug industry's most heavily tested hypotheses.
DUBLIN – Pharma Two B Ltd., a privately held specialty pharma firm, closed its third round of funding at $30 million in order to complete clinical development and registration of its lead program, P2B001, a combination therapy for Parkinson's disease, and to add additional products to its portfolio.
DUBLIN – Shares in Neovacs SA surged by as much as 35 percent Tuesday on news of an option agreement in China worth up to €65 million (US$68.5 million) in up-front and milestone payments for its therapeutic vaccine, IFNα Kinoid, which is currently undergoing a phase IIb trial in lupus. The deal, with Biosense Global LLC, covers Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, as well as China.
DUBLIN – Jecure Therapeutics Inc. raised $20 million in series A funding for the discovery and development of therapeutics to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver fibrosis, based on new insights into the sterile inflammatory processes that drive the disease.
DUBLIN – Inventiva SA raised €48 million ($50.9 million) in the third European biotech IPO of 2017. The Dijon, France-based drug developer priced the offer at €8.50 per share, at the bottom of the indicative range of €8.50 to €9.75 it set at the start of the bookbuilding process.
DUBLIN – Prexton Therapeutics SA raised €29 million (US$31 million) in a series B round to conduct two phase II trials in Parkinson’s disease of its metabotropic glutamate receptor 4 (mGluR4) agonist, foliglurax (PXT002331).
DUBLIN – The management of Innate Pharma SA embarked on a comprehensive damage limitation exercise Monday in the wake of the failure of the firm’s lead molecule, lirilumab, to demonstrate efficacy as a monotherapy in a phase II trial in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
DUBLIN – The "strong performance" of its second life sciences fund was key to Seroba Life Sciences raising a third. The Dublin-based venture capital firm has raised €100 million (US$108 million) in a first close, but it remains open to additional investments for much of this year.
DUBLIN – Shares in Targovax ASA surged almost 40 percent to an all-time high Thursday on preliminary top-line data indicating a possible survival benefit in pancreatic cancer for its peptide-based therapeutic vaccine TG01, in development for Ras-mutated cancers.
