UK scientists have reported how cancer cells that migrate away from their primary tumours can establish themselves in a new micro-environment and flourish. The findings appeared online on 6 December in the journal Cell Reports.
Sygnis AG, which makes products for DNA amplification and sequencing, has raised €5.6 million in a private equity placement while strengthening its balance sheet with a debt-for-equity swap with its major shareholder Genetrix SL of Spain.
Erytech Pharma SA, a France-based oncology company that is developing treatments to starve cancer cells of nutrients, has raised €24.5 million in a share placement with qualified investors in the US and Europe.
Sofinnova Partners, which was founded in 1972 as France’s first venture capital firm, has raised €300 million for its eighth life science fund bringing the total amount of money under management to €1.5 billion. Two thirds of the new funds will be invested in European companies.
Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KGaA has dropped the candidate oncology drug evofosfamide following two Phase 3 studies that failed to show efficacy in patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma and advanced pancreatic cancer.
Eli Lilly and Company is discontinuing development of the basal insulin peglispro (BIL), a candidate treatment for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, following increases in a key liver enzyme in patients enrolled in Phase 3 trials of the drug.
Pfizer Inc is to close its Neusentis research centre in Cambridge, UK where about 120 researchers carry out work on pain, sensory disorders, and regenerative medicine, the company confirmed in a statement on 3 December.
Publicly-listed Cytos Biotechnology Ltd has announced plans to merge with privately-owned Kuros Biosurgery Holding AG to create a new Switzerland-listed company that will be controlled by Kuros’ shareholders.
A UK spinout company, Kesios Therapeutics Ltd, has obtained £19 million in Series A financing to develop therapies targeting a complex that is downstream from a protein implicated in many cancers. The lead candidate is for multiple myeloma.
Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG has raised CHF 54.8 million (€50.38 million) in a private placement of its shares with investors in Switzerland and abroad to advance its portfolio of specialty medicines led by a treatment for a rare eye disease.