Company News

A venture capital syndicate has mobilised $141 million in Series B financing for an Italian biotech which is developing two gene therapies for retinal disorders. The company, AAVantgarde Bio Srl of Milan, is developing therapies for Stargardt disease and retinitis pigmentosa due to Usher syndrome type 1B. Both conditions are inherited retinal diseases for which there are no approved therapies. AAVantgarde is a spin-off of the Telethon Institute for Genetics and Medicine, an international research institute based in Naples.

Ipsen SA is to acquire a privately-owned French biotech with an oncology product that has shown promise for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) not amenable to standard treatments. The target company, ImCheck Therapeutics SAS, has found of a way of simultaneously modulating the innate and adaptive immune systems with a monoclonal antibody, ICT01, that both identifies and kills cancer cells.

Novartis has signalled its growing interest in neuroscience and RNA technologies with the proposed acquisition of Avidity Biosciences Inc which has three late clinical-stage assets for genetic neuromuscular diseases. Novartis will pay approximately $12 billion in cash for the San Diego, US, company, in a transaction that is expected to close in the first half of 2026. Prior to the close, Avidity will spin-off earlier-stage programmes in cardiology into a new, separate company which could potentially be sold to a third party.

Emma Walmsley, the departing chief executive of GSK Plc, gave an upbeat forecast for the company’s product portfolio on 29 October, highlighting up to 15 late-stage products that could see a market launch between now and 2031. The company has also upgraded revenue and core operating profit guidance for the current year.

Eli Lilly and Company is acquire Adverum Biotechnologies Inc, giving it a Phase 3 gene therapy for a common eye disorder and expanding its portfolio of genetic medicines. The acquisition, priced at approximately $262 million, comes just five months after Lilly made a much bigger outlay for Verve Therapeutics Inc, a Boston, US based company, which has an in vivo gene editing product for cardiovascular disease. This acquisition was valued at $1 billion upfront.

Omnix Medical Ltd, based in Israel, has raised $25 million from a Series C funding round to accelerate development of a pipeline of antimicrobials directed against multidrug-resistant infections. Announced on 15 October, the financing was co-led by Harel Insurance & Finance Group, one of Israel’s largest financial institutions, and the European Innovation Council Fund, a venture initiative of the European Commission under the Horizon Europe research programme.

Tubulis GmbH, a German company with a portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates, has raised €308 million in a Series C financing round in what is being described as the largest C round for a European biotechnology company and the biggest financing globally for a private ADC developer. Announced on 15 October, the round was led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners with participation from additional new investors Wellington Management and Ascenta Capital.

Bristol Myers Squibb Co has stepped up its commitment to cell therapies with plans to spend $1.5 billion to acquire a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech which is developing a medicine to reprogramme the immune system and treat autoimmune diseases. Orbital’s lead product, OTX-201, is an in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy that is being developed using ribonucleic acid (RNA) technology. The preclinical product consists of a circular RNA that encodes a CAR which targets cells expressing CD19, a B cell specific antigen.

AstraZeneca Plc has become the second global pharmaceutical company to sign an agreement with the Trump Administration to lower the prices of its medicines sold in the US. In parallel it will increase its manufacturing presence in the country and upgrade its share listing. Pfizer Inc signed a similar agreement with the government on 30 September. The deals are applications of the World Trade Organization’s most-favoured nation principle (MFN) under which favourable terms of trade, like lower tariffs, extended to one country are granted to other WHO members as well.

Genmab A/S is to take over the Dutch company Merus NV for $8 billion in one of the largest  European biotech transactions to date, giving it new tools for treating a host of cancers. Merus has a portfolio of bispecific and trispecific antibodies which are recombinant molecules that bind to one or more targets at the same time. The company has one marketed product, Bizengri (zenocutuzumab), which has been approved for non-small cell lung and pancreatic cancers, and a second, petosemtamab, which is in development for head and neck and colorectal cancers.