Start-ups

Biomia, the first company spun out from BioInnovation Institute’s Bio Studio programme, has secured $3 million in pre-seed financing from an international syndicate of investors. Biomia says it plans to use the investment to accelerate its development of plant-inspired natural and new-to-nature halogenated small molecule drug candidates and further build its biosynthetic manufacturing platform. Chief […]

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 […]

DDW’s Diana Spencer speaks to Alok Javali, CSO of dawn-bio, a new addition to BioInnovation Institute’s (BII) Venture Lab acceleration programme, about the lack of innovation in women’s reproductive health and the company’s plans to fill the vacuum. Earlier this year, dawn-bio was one of five drug discovery companies to enter the BioInnovation Institute’s (BII) […]

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 […]

Anoat Therapeutics, a preclinical stage biotechnology company specialised in Cystic Fibrosis (CF), has raised €2m ($2.17m) in seed funding from AdBio partners, a venture capital company specialised in seed investments in life sciences startups.   This investment from the AFB FII fund stems from the AdBio-Inserm Transfert partnership announced in May 2022 to finance, support and […]

Danish start-up InProTher has raised €6 million seed funding from private investors, with participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund. The financing will enable InProTher to advance its lead drug candidate, IPT001, a first-in-class immunotherapy against solid tumours, into clinical development. Incubated at the BioInnovation Institute (BII) and seeded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, […]

New South African company NewBiologix has launched with the aim of developing a proprietary and breakthrough platform for the advanced engineering of cell lines used to manufacture gene and cell therapies. The company’s DNA-based platform is being developed to address manufacturing challenges associated with the production of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors used to produce […]

AI drug discovery company MultiOmic Health has closed a £5 million ($6.2 million) seed funding extension round to build a precision therapeutics discovery platform for metabolic syndrome-related medical conditions. The round was led by London-based Hoxton Ventures, with participation from Ada Ventures, MMC Ventures and Verve Ventures. Since beginning operations in May 2021, MultiOmic has […]

DDW takes a look at some key global activity taking place around the world for drug discovery and life sciences start-ups. UK Budget a ‘shot in the arm’ for oncology start-ups Before the UK announced its Spring Budget, UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) called on the Treasury to provide additional support through the R&D tax relief […]

BioInnovation Institute Foundation (BII) and Ferring Pharmaceuticals have expanded their collaboration with the objective to accelerate world-class life science innovation within women’s health. New activities will include supporting BII to source and potentially fund and incubate early-stage start-ups and projects within the field of reproductive medicine. “The new strategic collaboration, highlights Ferring’s continued commitment to […]

Five drug discovery companies have entered the BioInnovation Institute’s (BII) Venture Lab acceleration programme for early-stage companies as part of a cohort of ten new members.  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 […]

Five Alarm Bio (FAB) has completed a seed investment round, raising over £500K ($605K). The funding will drive proprietary research into novel compounds that extend healthy lifespan of cells and tissues, with therapeutic potential across a broad range of age-related diseases. Investors include Cambridge Angels, Meltwind, o2h Ventures, and SyndicateRoom, as well as other Angel […]

Aera Therapeutics has launched with a vision to “unlock the potential of genetic medicines across a wide range of modalities and therapeutic areas”.   The company’s delivery platform is based on research conducted in the laboratory of scientific founder Feng Zhang and aims to address the limitations of today’s delivery technologies to more broadly enable new […]

Swedish start-up Atrogi has enrolled the first patient in its Phase Ia/b study of ATR-258, a novel b2adrenoceptor agonist for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and comorbidities.  Conducted in Mannheim, Germany by Clinical Research Services (CRS), the trial is expected to be completed by April 2023 with the final report in June 2023.   The […]