Biotech News

Exscientia’s latest €434.9M ($525M) financing last month showed investors are still excited by efforts to use artificial intelligence to fuel drug discovery, with global tech investors often taking the lead. The Oxford, UK-based company Exscientia has one of the most mature artificial intelligence (AI)-focused drug discovery pipelines, alongside companies like BenevolentAI in the UK, and Aria Pharmaceuticals and Atomwise in the US.  Earlier this week, Exscientia announced its third partnered program was heading to the clinic, a small molecule for psychotic symptoms resulting from Alzheimer’s disease. This is the second clinical asset from Exscientia’s neuroscience partnership with the Japanese firm Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma — the first went to clinical trials last year for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Exscientia’s other clinical asset, a cancer immunotherapy developed with the German company Evotec, began phase I testing in April. Exscientia’s latest financing included a €186.4M ($225M) Series D led by the tech-focused SoftBank, which also pledged an additional €248.5M ($300M) equity commitment for use at the company’s discretion. Combined, The post European AI Drug Discovery Attracting Tech Investor Bets appeared first on Labiotech.eu.

The biotech's treatment is part of a wave of new treatments meant to mimic the effects of natural killer cell transplants in leukemia, though analysts remain skeptical.

The results are a setback for Biogen, which spent $800 million two years ago to acquire the treatment's developer, Nightstar Therapeutics.

Otonomy eyes clinical trial of hearing loss gene therapy with promising animal data aliu Fri, 05/14/2021 - 08:56

Compass inks Trigr takeover to land clinical-phase bispecific ntaylor Fri, 05/14/2021 - 07:51

Kinnate, OrbiMed team up to target Chinese lung cancer market ntaylor Fri, 05/14/2021 - 06:44

With a new CMO and phase 3 data to hand, Humanigen eyes COVID-19 drug emergency filing by June badams Fri, 05/14/2021 - 04:22

Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with Movers & Shakers.

Life science jobs are booming in several regions around the U.S. One is the Pacific Northwest, specifically Oregon; another is the Philadelphia area. Here’s a look.

A study, published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated no obvious safety signals among pregnant persons who received the mRNA vaccines.

PerkinElmer expands its presence with the acquisition of Nexcelom, which would allow the company to expand global efforts to accelerate time to target and time to market for novel therapeutics.

Humanigen reported it had held a meeting with the FDA to discuss plans for filing an EUA for its lenzilumab for hospitalized, hypoxic COVID-19 patients by the end of May.

Every week there are numerous scientific studies published. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones.

Overall, the researchers claim this “Disinformation Dozen” generate approximately 65% of the anti-vaccine misinformation on these platforms.

Pfizer’s clinical trials diversity report showed the disproportionate way the virus impacted minority communities in the U.S., increasing the calls for racial and ethnic diversity in clinical studies.

Cellino’s unique blend of lasers and machine learning is transforming the manufacture of autologous stem cell therapies from an inconsistent hand-crafted endeavor to a scalable, efficient, closed-loop, modern process.

Foresite Labs-incubated company Interline Therapeutics announced Thursday that it had raised $92 million in a financing round co-led by Foresite Capital and ARCH Venture Partners.

The help wanted signs are up across the biopharma industry. Companies are opening and expanding facilities, which is good news for job seekers.

Biogen reported that its gene therapy, cotoretigene toliparvovec, failed to hit the primary endpoint of the Phase II/III XIRIUS trial for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP).

Chutes & Ladders—Gossamer vet Salter-Cid dons CSO mantle at Flagship's new Pioneering Medicines unit fkansteiner Thu, 05/13/2021 - 14:10

Study results could address concerns raised by FDA advisers who recently voted against approval of Keytruda in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

The San Diego-based biotech's drug, which will now be sold as Zynrelef, had perviously been rejected by the agency in 2019 and 2020.

NEA-backed Allay exits stealth with clinical pain data, plans to reduce need for opioids ntaylor Thu, 05/13/2021 - 08:09

Autolus' CD19 CAR-T posts 100% complete response rate, zero grade 3 CRS in small lymphoma trial ntaylor Thu, 05/13/2021 - 07:33

How a genetic 'CopyCatcher' could open the door to CRISPR-based precision gene therapy aliu Thu, 05/13/2021 - 07:26