DUBLIN – The cash spigot is still turned on, as two more European firms disclosed series A rounds on Oct. 13. Chord Therapeutics SA took in €16 million (US$18.8 million) to repurpose cladribine for rare autoimmune disorders. Rappta Therapeutics Oy raised €9 million to take forward a novel concept in cancer, focused on developing small-molecule activators of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A).
DUBLIN – Priothera Ltd. closed a €30 million (US$35.4 million) series A round to shepherd an oral sphingosine 1 phosphate (S1P) receptor agonist through clinical development in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).
Shares in Cytokinetics Inc. closed down 42% Oct. 8 on news that omecamtiv mecarbil, a heart failure drug which it is developing with Amgen Inc. (with funding and strategic support from Les Laboratoires Servier SAS), failed to demonstrate a survival benefit in a large-scale cardiovascular outcomes study.
Scribe Therapeutics Inc., another CRISPR-based genome editing firm out of the Jennifer Doudna stable, launched with $20 million in series A funding and a deal with Biogen Inc. in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which brings in another $15 million up front and up to $400 million in development and commercial milestones.
DUBLIN – In what continues to be a year like no other, European biotechnology firms engaged in drug development raised $4.783 billion in equity financing during the third quarter. It is an unprecedented level of funding for the sector.
DUBLIN – The ongoing legal uncertainty surrounding the transfer of data from European research institutions or companies to international partners shows little sign of resolution, despite the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has engendered an extraordinary collaborative response from the global scientific community.
DUBLIN – Galecto Biotech Inc. raised $64 million in a series D funding round, which will enable the company to complete a phase IIb trial of its lead drug candidate, the inhaled galectin-3 inhibitor GB-0139, in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and to move two other programs into phase II studies, in liver fibrosis and myelofibrosis, before year-end.
DUBLIN – Afimmune Ltd. is starting a phase IIb trial of a bioactive lipid, epeleuton, in patients with high triglycerides and type 2 diabetes, in an effort to confirm prospective observations already seen in a phase IIa study.
DUBLIN – Shares in AC Immune SA were off more than 40% Sept. 23 on news that its tau-directed antibody, semorinemab, which is partnered with Genentech, failed to demonstrate efficacy in a phase II trial in Alzheimer’s disease.
DUBLIN – Genentech has succeeded where Sanofi SA and its partner, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., have failed, in obtaining some sort of a positive signal from a clinical trial of an interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitor in COVID-19.
