Artios Pharma raise 85m in Series B round
Life Sciences Partners and Andera Partners together with Pfizer Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund have put 85m into the cancer drug development company Artios Pharma Ltd.
Researchers remyelinate neurons
German neurogenetics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Experimental Medicine have cured the rare incurable hereditary Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease by simply supplementing the food of mice carrying the disease-causing duplication of the PMP22 gene with lecithin. The phospholipid supplementation enabled Schwann cells deficient in lipid synthesis to restore the insulating myelin sheet around peripheral neurons which is needed to speed up neuronal transmission.
Switch for osteoporosis and obesity
German researchers have found a molecular switch that determines whether mesenchymal fibroblasts differentiate into fat- or bone-forming cells opening the avenue to modulation of the processes.
Roche presents biomarker test to identify NSCLC responders to Tecentriq
Researchers at Roche’s US arms Genentech and Foundation Medicine Inc. (FMI) presented a liquid biopsy test that can be used to identify NSCLC patients who respond to Roche’s PD-L1 blocker Tecentriq earlier than to FMI’s tissue based tumour mutation burden (TMB) assay.
Boehringer Ingelheim starts gene therapy collaboration for cystic fibrosis
German pharma company and CDMO Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) steps into the lucrative field of gene therapy. Together with the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium (GTC), BI aims at developing replacement therapies compensating for mutations that lead to cystic fibrosis.
Arix Bioscience acquires 11% stake in Phamaxis Ltd.
An investor consortium led by British Arix Bioscience plc has put £13.4m into the Australian Pharmaxis Ltd, which develops fibrosis inhibitors based on its amine oxidase discovery platform.
Getting ready for Brexit
As UKs departure from the EU is fast approaching, stakeholders are preparing for the disruption a hard Brexit might cause. While EMA is scaling back activities, pharma companies are stockpiling meds.
ReViral raises US$55m
Antiviral drug discovery company ReViral announced the successful completion of a of a US$55m Series B financing. The funding will go toward clinical studies for its respiratory tract infection treatment.
EUs single-use plastic rules boost bioplastics
The global market value of biodegradable plastics has passed the US$1.1bn mark in 2018, a report by IHS Markit says. More than half of the demand comes from Western Europe, driven by increasing regulation.
First migraine prevention drug hits EU market
Swiss pharma giant Novartis announced that its monoclonal antibody for migraine prevention Aimovig (erenumab) has received market approval in the EU. It is the first treatment of its kind to be available here.