Promethera Biosciences SA has raised an additional €7.5 million for its Series D financing round bringing total proceeds up to €39.7 million. The financing was led by new investors Sony Innovation Fund by IGV and Pegasus Tech Ventures. It will be used to further advance the company’s clinical programmes in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and acute-on-chronic liver failure as well as to support the company’s growth in Asia.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) on the basis of data showing that the medicine increased the production of the dystrophin protein in patients – a surrogate for improved motor function. The drug, Vyondys 53, was developed by Sarepta Therapeutics Inc, whose first DMD drug Exondys 51 was approved by the FDA in 2016, also on the basis of a surrogate endpoint.
Sanofi SA’s decision to acquire the US synthetic biology company Synthorx Inc gives the French multinational new tools for expanding its oncology portfolio. Sanofi announced the takeover on 9 December, just a day before its new chief executive, Paul Hudson, briefed investors on the company’s R&D strategy going forward. This will focus on rare diseases, immunology and oncology, while discontinuing research in diabetes and cardiovascular medicine.
Forendo Pharma Ltd, whose lead product is being developed for endometriosis, has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Novartis to use the same technology platform to discover new drugs for chronic liver diseases. The deal, announced on 11 December, is a further validation of the company’s technology for inhibiting a family of enzymes called HSD17B (17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydregonase) which play a role in multiple diseases.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is to enlist the help of a UK company specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) to identify new indications for rare neurological diseases. The partnership, with Healx Ltd of the UK, involves exploiting assets that are already in BI’s portfolio. The financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
Edinburgh, UK-based Epidarex Capital is to put more money behind company creation in the life science industry with the launch of a dedicated incubator, Epidarex Exeed Ltd. Epidarex Exeed will de-risk promising scientific assets and provide management support to prepare prospective companies for launch and Series A financing. Seed funding for the young companies will be provided by Epidarex Capital.
A Swiss company with a strategy for stimulating natural killer (NK) cells to treat cancer has raised CHF 15 million ($15.24 million) to complete the first human trials of a protein therapeutic for the potential treatment of both solid and liquid tumours. ImmunOs Therapeutics AG secured the funding from a syndicate co-led by BioMedPartners and Pfizer Ventures. ImmunOs is a spin-out of the University of Zurich and the University of Basel.
Merck & Co Inc is to acquire the cancer drug developer ArQule Inc in order to gain access to a small molecule drug for the treatment of B-cell malignancies. The value of the transaction is $2.7 billion and features a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, ARQ 531, currently in Phase 2 clinical development. The deal, agreed by both parties, is expected to close early in the 2020 first quarter.
Novartis has enlisted the services of Amazon Web Services Inc to make its manufacturing and delivery operations more efficient. This involves using digital technology to enable people across the company to forecast and track production, detect bottlenecks and make adjustments to the system in real time. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
New long-term data for the cancer therapy Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) have shown that nearly half of patients treated with the cell-based gene therapy were alive three years after treatment. The long-term data were presented on 7 December at the American Society of Hematology meeting in the US, and are similar to outcome data reported in 2017.