Investment

The BioInnovation Institute (BII) has welcomed three new drug discovery start-ups into its Venture Lab acceleration programme as part of its latest cohort of eight companies. The 12-month Venture Lab programme is designed to support start-up companies with business acceleration, scientific and team development, and provides a founder-friendly convertible loan of €500,000 plus access to […]

Talus Bio has received $4.3 million in new grants from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and the Washington State Andy Hill CARE Fund to advance its paediatric cancer therapeutics. The Seattle-based company received two grants totalling $2.3M from the CARE Fund to fuel the discovery of new transcription factor inhibitors for rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroblastoma, […]

The life sciences sector has seen significant M&A activity over the last few weeks. DDW’s Diana Spencer provides an overview. BioIVT acquires PrecisionMed In July BioIVT acquired biospecimens company PrecisionMed, gaining access to, reportedly, the largest private, global repository of longitudinally collected human CSF for scientific research. “We are thrilled to announce BioIVT’s acquisition of […]

Astellas Pharma will invest $50 million into Poseida Therapeutics to secure the rights to the company’s cancer CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumours, which is currently in Phase I trials. The total $50 million will include $25 million to acquire 8,333,333 shares of common stock of Poseida and a one-time $25 million payment for first […]

The second quarter of 2023 has seen steady growth in financing activity for the UK’s life sciences sector, according to new data released by the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and Clarivate. The positive news comes soon after industry figures welcomed recent announcements to unlock new sources of capital in the City of London. Last month, the […]

Biogen has revealed an agreement to acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals for approximately $7.3 billion. The news follows an announcement by the company last week that it would cut around 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, to allow investment into its product pipeline. In its second quarter results, the company said its new ‘Fit for Growth’ […]

The latest episode of the DDW Highlights podcast is now available to listen to below. DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates five key stories of the week to keep DDW subscribers up-to-date on the latest industry updates.  Despite the bad news for the UK life sciences industry this week that international investment dropped nearly 50% in 2022, both private and […]

News round-up for 10-14 July by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer. Despite the bad news for the UK life sciences industry this week that international investment dropped nearly 50% in 2022, both private and public funding activity has continued apace in the wider drug discovery sector, including within the UK itself, with investment into […]

International investors are abandoning UK life sciences as excessive revenue clawback rates start to bite, according to the latest Life Sciences Competitiveness Indicators published by the government1. The UK saw a substantial drop in the estimated value of inward life sciences foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2022 compared to 2021, falling to £1.9 billion ($2.5 […]

Recursion, a clinical stage company decoding biology to industrialise drug discovery, has announced a $50 million investment by NVIDIA, which was executed as a private investment in public equity (PIPE).   Recursion also announced plans to accelerate development of its AI foundation models for biology and chemistry, which, in collaboration with NVIDIA, it will optimise […]

SMi Systems has disclosed a £6m ($7.6m) seed funding round to develop and prove the utility of its multi-omic platform for in vitro diagnosis and biomedical research. SMi hopes the technology will significantly accelerate the discovery of new therapeutics by biopharma companies and research institutions. The company has also hired a new Chief Development Officer […]

Vesalius Biocapital, a life sciences venture capital investor, has closed its fourth fund, Vesalius Biocapital IV, securing over €95 million of commitments. The company plans to invest in first and best-in-class European life science companies in drug development and digital health. The goal is to build a portfolio of 10-15 companies, providing capital and the […]

It’s not easy being the new kid on the block. DDW’s Diana Spencer speaks to the CEOs of two drug discovery start-ups to find out how they have overcome the challenges of launching a new company in a competitive market. It’s a challenging time to launch a new company in the life sciences sector. High […]

invoX Pharma, a UK-based wholly-owned subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical, with an advancing pipeline of innovative products, has completed a second tranche of investment in pHion Therapeutics, a next-generation mRNA vaccine company.   pHion is developing a pipeline of therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines focussed on oncology and infectious diseases. The company’s proprietary RALA platform can deliver anionic […]

The latest episode of the DDW Highlights podcast is now available to listen to below. DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates five key stories of the week to keep DDW subscribers up-to-date on the latest industry updates.  The theme of DDW’s news review this week is money. Although Clarivate has reported a recent drop in investment in the industry, it […]

News round-up for 22-26 May by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer. The theme of our news review this week is money. Although Clarivate has reported a recent drop in investment in the industry, it is good to see companies raising money through funding rounds and investing in new facilities, as well as government support […]