UK-based NodThera Ltd has raised £28 million in Series A financing to develop small molecule drugs to treat diseases driven by chronic inflammation. The financing was co-led by Sofinnova Partners and 5AM Ventures with further participation by Epidarex Capital and F-Prime Capital Partners.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Epidiolex, a treatment for severe forms of epilepsy that is based on cannabidiol, a purified drug substance derived from marijuana. Epidiolex was developed by GW Pharmaceuticals Plc.
It has been approved to treat Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome in patients two years of age and older.
The drug is the first approved treatment containing cannabidiol, a chemical component of the Cannabis sativa plant. It is also the first drug approved for patients with Dravet syndrome.
Belgium-based iTeos Therapeutics SA has raised $75 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance two of its immunotherapy candidates into the clinic and open a new office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.
The funding was led by MPM Capital with participation from the additional new investors HBM Partners, 6 Dimensions Capital and Curative Ventures. All of the company’s existing investors also participated in the round.
In the wake of unexpectedly positive clinical results from a trial testing the folfirinox chemotherapy regimen in patients with pancreatic cancer, after surgery, Targovax ASA has decided to drop development of its therapeutic vaccine for this indication.
Emulate Inc, the developer of micro-engineered chips that mimic that activity of live human organs, has raised $36 million in a Series C financing round to finance the expansion of its organs-on-chips technology that is being used by the pharma industry to test candidate drugs for safety and predict efficacy.
Roche and Foundation Medicine Inc reached a definitive merger agreement on 19 June enabling the Swiss multinational to acquire shares of the US molecular information company that it does not already own.
Roche is to buy the shares at $137 per share in cash giving a total transaction value of $2.4 billion and a total company value of $5.3 billion. This represents a premium of 29% to Foundation Medicine’s closing stock market price on 18 June and a premium of 47% and 68% to the 30-day and 90-day volume weighted average share price on the same day.
Syncona Investment Management Ltd of the UK has launched two new gene therapy companies to complement its existing portfolio which includes Nightstar Therapeutics Plc and Freeline Therapeutics Ltd.
The new companies, in which Syncona is the sole institutional investor, are Orbit BioMedical Ltd, a surgical platform company and SwanBio Therapeutics Ltd, a gene therapy company focused on neurological disorders. Syncona, formerly part of the Wellcome Trust, has invested $12 million in Orbit for an 80% stake, and $23 million in SwanBio for a 72% stake.
A gene therapy for a rare, genetic eye disorder has been selected by the US Food and Drug Administration for its Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy Designation in recognition of the product’s potential to treat an unmet medical need.
The European Medicines Agency is restricting the use of two checkpoint inhibitor drugs as first-line treatments for urothelial cancer, or cancer of the bladder and urinary tract, because they may not work as well as chemotherapy in this group of patients. The drugs are Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor, and Tecentriq (atezolizumab), which inhibits the protein programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). Both drugs are monoclonal antibodies that block a protective mechanism of cancer cells, allowing the immune system to destroy these cells.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the marketing of an artificial intelligence algorithm which is part of a diagnostic intended to help physicians detect wrist fractures. Called OsteoDetect, the product is a computer-aided detection and diagnostic software package that uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyse two-dimensional X-ray images for signs of distal radius fracture, a common type of wrist fracture. The software marks the location of the fracture on the image to assist the healthcare provider with detection and diagnosis.