Novo Nordisk A/S is to use artificial intelligence and real-world data to discover new drugs for cardiometabolic diseases under a collaboration with Valo Health Inc, a three-year old US company founded by venture capitalists.
Laboratoires Pierre Fabre SA has acquired a biotech company founded by Versant Ventures as part of a drive to expand its pipeline in oncology. The company, Vertical Bio AG, has a monoclonal antibody poised to enter clinical development for patients with non-small cell lung cancer – specifically those with mutations or amplification of the c-MET protein.
ROME Therapeutics Inc, a US company developing therapies based on the dark genome, has secured $72 million from a Series B round extension bringing the total amount raised up to $149 million. Strategic investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation-JJDC Inc and Bristol Myers Squibb Inc joined the funding syndicate alongside new and existing investors.
Forbion, the European life sciences venture fund, has announced the close of a Series B financing round for Mariana Oncology, a US radiopharmaceutical company with a lead drug candidate targeting small cell lung cancer. In conjunction with the funding, Geert-Jan Mulder, a managing partner of Forbion, will join the board of directors alongside Rebecca Luse from Deep Track Capital which co-led the funding round.
The French start-up company Corteria Pharmaceuticals has raised €65 million in an oversubscibed Series A financing to progress its candidate therapies for heart failure. Announced on 7 September, the financing was co-led by Jeito Capital and Orbimed with participation from the existing investors Kurma Partners, Fountain Healthcare Partners, V-Bio Ventures, Invivo Capital, and Omnes Capital.
Sofinnova Investments has led a $90 million Series C financing round for Star Therapeutics Inc, the proceeds of which will support one of Star’s portfolio companies called Vega Therapeutics. Based in South San Francisco, US, Star is a biotechnology company consisting of subsidiary enterprises which are each focused on developing products based on specific areas of biology.
In addition to Sofinnova, investors in the oversubscribed round included the Qatar Investment Authority, Catalio Capital Management, Agent Capital, Soleus Capital and NYBC Ventures.
The private equity group Permira has made an offer to buy Ergomed Plc, a UK-based contract research organisation (CRO), for approximately £703 million. The offer represents a 32.4% premium to the three-month volume weighted average price per Ergomed share and will be executed through a newly incorporated company controlled by funds advised by Permira Advisors LLP. Ergomed has been listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange since 2014 when it raised £11 million through an initial public offering.
Mysthera Therapeutics AG made its debut in Switzerland on 21 August with $3.5 million of seed capital and a plan to develop new therapies for autoimmune diseases. The company is being supported by Forty51 Ventures, a Basel-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in biotech with a geographic emphasis on Switzerland, France and Germany.
SSI Strategy Holdings LLC, a US-based life science consultancy, is to acquire the NDA Group AB of Sweden in a move that will expand its repertoire of services for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to include regulatory advice as well as support for drug development. The combined group will have a commercial presence across the US and Europe with a capacity to provide services from clinical development to medical affairs and regulation, including the use of real-world evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs.
Novo Nordisk A/S is to pay up to $1.075 billion in cash to acquire Inversago Pharma Inc of Canada in order to expand its portfolio of assets for treating serious metabolic disorders. The Danish company currently has a leading position in the global market for diabetes and obesity treatments. The acquisition will give it a clinical-stage product for diabetic kidney disease and other assets for metabolic and fibrotic disorders.