Knottins! —  Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 1 Scene 1: ‘’Turn him to any cause of policy/ The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose/ Familiar as his garter’’. Alexander the Great said to have cut the knot, thus solving the problem, which at the time meant the minute task of ruling all across Asia. Taking on no smaller challenges, Cambridge-based Maxion Therapeutics has raised $16 million to tackle chronic pain and autoimmune diseases using its proprietary Knotbody technology. It combines the benefits of knottins, certain knot-shape miniproteins, and antibodies to target ion channels and GPCRs. More on Cambridge! Cerevance has raised additional $51 million series B to support upcoming clinical trials focused on Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and schizophrenia; and Cydar Medical has raised $11.5 million Series A to advance image-guided minimally invasive surgery. Now, there are only few things more important in life than knowing why do we fight for. Teddi Shaw, a 19-months-old baby, has become the first child in the UK to receive a life-saving lentiviral hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy treatment for the fatal disorder, metachromatic leukodystrophy. The therapy, Libmeldy, has been developed by Orchard Therapeutics. Long live, friends. This week we have three acquisitions of UK biotech companies, two are going to Europe and one is crossing the big pond. British Patient Capital has launched a £200 million Life Sciences Investment Programme to close the growth equity finance gap faced by UK biotech companies and Panakes Partners has a closed its new €175 million Purple Fund. Former Chair of the UK Government Covid-19 Antivirals Taskforce Eddie Gray has been appointed as Chair of the SpyBiotech’s Board of Directors. Pharma Affairs focuses on the Orange company this week and for good reasons. More to celebrate: as it turns out, Britain is the top nation in Europe for sustainable protein funding. Academic freedom is a little like french fries - they're not really French, and it's not really freedom, says Yaniv Erlich, more on this in the Interesting readings section. Jeu du jour: we discuss the new (or not so new?) venture model Curie.bio is suggesting and its implications for biotechs. That, and also Taylor Wessing, Andreessen Horowitz and the European Investment Fund. Music, the best Beatles song. Arts with Börse Photography Foundation. Let’s dive in!

Cambridge-based Maxion Therapeutics has raised $16 million Series A to develop novel biologics targeting ion channels and G-protein-coupled receptors. The round was led by LifeArc Ventures, including Monograph Capital and BGF as equal participants. Maxion Therapeutics was co-founded in 2020 by Dr John McCafferty (CEO), phage display pioneer, co-founder of CAT (acquired by AstraZeneca for £700m) and IONTAS (acquired by FairJourney Biologics), and Dr Aneesh Karatt Vellatt (CSO), also co-founder of IONTAS. The company is developing its proprietary KnotBody platform to discover of biologics against ion channels and GPCRs by using naturally occurring cysteine-rich miniproteins called knottins. which modulate ion channels and GPCRs but have poor drug-like properties. KnotBodies bring together the functional activity of knottins, which naturally evolved to target ion channels, with the excellent drug properties of antibodies. To date, there are no approved antibody drugs addressing this neglected target class. Maxion aims to develop first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutics focusing on untreatable or poorly-treated diseases (i.e. autoimmune conditions and chronic pain). In addition, Dr Sohaib Mir (Senior Investment Principal, LifeArc Ventures), Dr Tim Funnell(Partner, Monograph Capital), and Lucy Edwardes Jones (Investor, BGF) have been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors alongside Dr McCafferty, Dr Karatt Vellatt and Dr Tom Weaver.

Cambridge-based Cerevance has raised an additional $51 million in Series B. The investment was participated by participation from Gates Frontier, Dementia Discovery Fund, Foresite Capital, Google Ventures, Lightstone Ventures, Takeda Ventures, UPMC Enterprises and Dolby Family Ventures. It brings the total Series B financing to $116 million. The proceedings of the round will be used to support upcoming clinical trials focused on Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and schizophrenia. Cerevance plans to reach several key clinical milestones, including a Phase 2 proof of concept study assessing CVN424 as a monotherapy treatment in patients with newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease not yet treated with levodopa in Q2 2023, a Phase 2 study evaluating CVN766 as a potential treatment for the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia in Q4 2023, and a Phase 1 study assessing CVN293 in Q3 2023. The company also has a multi-year strategic research collaboration with Merck and a research collaboration with Takeda to identify novel target proteins expressed in the CNS to develop new therapies for certain GI disorders.

Cambridge-based Cydar Medical has raised $11.5 million Series A. The funding round was led by Pembroke VCT and participated by Downing Healthcare Ventures and Greenwood Way Capital. Cydar Medical leverages AI technology to transform the way information is provided to clinicians undertaking image-guided minimally invasive surgery, thus simplifying complexities within operating theatres. The proceedings of the investment will be used to advance the comapany’s pioneering AI surgical maps platform and bolster the its ongoing commercial expansion. This will enable the Company to rapidly scale-up the commercial roll-out of its 3D AI surgical maps product and continue to advance its plans to create value across its innovative technology platform. In addition, Andrew Wolfson, Chief Executive Officer of Pembroke Investment Managers LLP and Dr Nigel Pitchford, Head of Healthcare Ventures at Downing LLP, have been appointed to Cydar Medical’s Board of Directors as Non-Executive Directors.

Hampshire-based iFAST Diagnostics has secured a £2 million investment. The round was led by QantX with support from UKI2S, KHP Ventures, Kadmos Capital, and Cambridge Capital Group. iFAST Diagnostics is developing a diagnostic test that can detect antibiotic susceptibility and resistance within a few hours of taking a patient sample, 10x faster than current methods. The technology uses multi-frequency impedance in a microfluidic chip to measure the electrical properties of 5,000 individual bacteria in 30 seconds. The funding will enable the firm to commercialise the platform and achieve initial sales to assist biotech firms in producing more effective antibiotics. The company is a spin-out from the University of Southampton.

London and Milan-based Biocentis has raised investment to use CRISPR-based gene-editing to control insect populations. Biocentis was span out from the Imperial College London. The proposed approach combines the sterile insect technique (SIT) with CRISPR technology to reduce the number of successful matings in the target population over multiple generations, while being cost-effective, safe and species-specific. Currently, SIT’s main limitation is that the flow of sterile insects needs to be heavily sustained over time. The company raised a seed round from Neurone and is investing in capabilities to apply data science to research and development, manufacturing, and field operation activities.

London-headquartered Orchard Therapeutics has announced a proposed change in the American Depositary Shares (ADSs) to ordinary shares ratio from 1:1 to 1:10. This is intended to enable the company to regain compliance with the Nasdaq minimum bid price requirement. The change will have no impact on the company's underlying ordinary shares, and no ordinary shares will be issued or cancelled. The company is a global gene therapy leader, aiming to end the devastation caused by genetic and other severe diseases. In 2018, Orchard acquired GSK’s rare disease gene therapy portfolio and is currently focusing on developing hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapies.

Cambridge-based Kirontech has raised growth capital (details not disclosed). The round was led by Venture Capitalworks, and participated by BiG Ventures and Critical Ventures. The investment will be used to tackle fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) in the global medical payment industry, as well as helping with clients onboarding.

Antler has invested £840,000 across seven pre-seed businesses in the UK, supplying £120,000 to each enterprise. As part of a wider investment into more than 100 startups across Europe, with 70 of them being UK-based, Genehub, a genome sequencing storage and permissions company based in London, was also funded. Last October, Antler made a £960,000 pre-seed funding investment into eight UK technology companies.

London-based Lumai has secured a £1.1 million Innovate UK Smart Grant. The funding will be used to develop optical neural networks for faster, more efficient computing. The grant will enable the company to build and launch optical neural networks for high-performance computing and machine vision, while simultaneously leading developments in advanced optical technologies. Lumai's technology is capable of energy-efficient and ultra-fast, parallel processing, and is 1000x faster than existing transistor-based digital electronics. The company was span out from Oxford University and is backed by IP Group and Luxembourg-based Runa Capital.

Growing Kent & Medway has awarded 11 grants worth £154,000 grants to businesses in the horticultural, food and drink sectors to help them develop innovative solutions to sustainability challenges, such as reducing plastic use, cutting energy use, and extracting plant proteins from seaweed. This will provide access to research and testing facilities at three research centres in Kent and Medway.

Kent-based DHP Healthcare (Covestus Ltd) has been acquired by Ireland-based Wyntra Pharmaceuticals. Wyntra is a specialty pharmaceutical company and the acquisition represent the first transaction to build transatlantic operations. DPH Helathcare was founded in 1959 and focuses on ethical and niche pharmaceuticals, including over-the-counter medicines.

Oxford-based Sense Biodetection has been acquired by US-based Sherlock Biosciences. Sherlock is working to bring next-generation diagnostics to the point of need. Sense’s acquisition will allow Sherlock to accelerate their go-to-market strategy and enable the vision of highly accurate and affordable diagnostics that can be used anytime, anywhere. The acquisition combines Sherlock's CRISPR-based diagnostics with Sense's instrument-free diagnostic technology and manufacturing capabilities to bring lab-quality results to global consumers.

KKR-formed Gamma Biosciences has entered into an agreement with Swedish life sciences company Biotage AB, whereby Biotage will acquire Gamma's operating company, Astrea Bioseparations (UK). The acquisition has been agreed in exchange for newly issued shares in Biotage, thus creating a global chromatography company. KKR-controlled Gamma is expected to become the largest shareholder in Biotage, with approximately 17.0% of shares outstanding. The enterprise value for Astrea consists of approximately $190 million to be paid at closing in shares of Biotage stock, subject to any closing adjustments, and up to $45M in milestone-based cash payments following closing. As part of the acquisition, Gamma will make a capital injection of approximately $25 million in Astrea. The transaction is conditional upon Biotage’s shareholder approval and subject to customary closing conditions.

The Rosalind Franklin Institute has obtained renewed core funding from UK Research and Innovation and announced a revised strategy to continue the development of unique technologies. These technologies will be used to tackle major difficulties in health, for instance, characterising the initial signs of degenerative diseases. In the five years since its inception, the Franklin has taken part in initiatives that have drawn in more than £100m in grants for the UK, including a £25m Wellcome grant to transform cryo-electron microscopy.

Cambridge-based Solvemed’s CEO Hugo Chrost has been selected as Thiel Fellow. The Thiel Foundation has announced the next class of Thiel Fellows, 20 individuals who are innovating in fields such as energy production, genetic testing, AI, and agriculture. The two-year Fellowship program provides fellows with $100,000 and mentorship from The Thiel Foundation’s network.

Panakes Partners has announced the final close of its Purple Fund, totalling €175 million. Panakes Purple Fund is the largest Italian Venture Capital Fund focused on the Life Science Sector. The Fund invests primarily in Italy and Europe, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Israel. This is the second fund of its kind for the investment firm and is participated by two anchor investors (EIF and FoF Venturitaly Fund of Funds of CDP Venture Capital SGR). In addition, it is supported by several companies and family offices such as Menarini, Elemaster Group, Rottapharm Biotech, etc) and pension funds (ENPACL, Cassa Forense, and Inarcassa). The first one was launched in 2016, raised €80 million and invested on 12 medtech startups. Panakes was founded in 2015 and has €250 million under management.

British Patient Capital has launched a £200 million Life Sciences Investment Programme (LSIP). LSIP aims to close the growth equity finance gap faced by British biotech companies. The program expects to attract further $400 million of private investment. LSIP will make cornerstone commitments to later stage life sciences venture growth funds with a strong UK focus, investing from £50 million to £100 million in each fund.

The International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) has declared that its investment adviser, SV Health Investors, has informed them of the termination of the trust's management from 9 February 2024. SV Health Investors has chosen to concentrate on its healthcare venture business where it manages more than $2 billion of funds. The board of IBT has instructed its advisors to assess the company's possibilities to guarantee the continuity of shareholders' exposure to the sector. Existing fund managers will remain in place during the evaluation, and there is anticipated to be notable enthusiasm from other fund managers. Ailsa Craig and Marek Poszepczynski will continue to direct the quoted portfolio while Kate Bingham and Houman Ashrafian will control the unquoted part of the portfolio during the review procedure. The fund has accomplished a 4% rise in total net asset value compared with 3% for the Nasdaq biotechnology index. Over the past 10-years, IBT shares have provided a compound annual return of 15.6%.

LifeArc has launched a Biology Research program to partner with academics, industry, charities, and patient groups to unlock the potential of early-stage science. The program can be completed at the participant’s own pace and subscription is free. The program has 4 stages: optimising experimental conditions, analysing data to determine optimal conditions, synthesising evidence and collaboration and results presentation.

Entrepreneurs, company leaders, and venture capitalists in the UK have called the recently created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to tackle five "pressing matters" to back UK innovation, including the commercialisation of technology created at educational institutions, technology hubs beyond the 'golden triangle', pension modifications, a strategy for intellectual property, and clarity on the tech visa scheme.

Maven Capital Partners has announced its North East team has invested £15 million in the region. In addition, it has invested an additional £17.5 million in private sector finance in 2022, supporting 18 companies and completing deal totalling over £30 million.

Teddi Shaw,19-months-old baby, has become the first child in the UK to receive a life-saving lentiviral hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy treatment for the fatal disorder, metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), on the NHS. The treatment(Libmeldy) is manufactured by UK-based biotech company Orchard Therapeutics, is a one-time treatment that corrects the underlying cause of MLD. MDL is caused by a mutation in the arylsulfatase-A (ARSA) gene that results in the accumulation of fats called sulfatides in the brain, peripheral nerves, and other areas of the body. It is available at one of five European sites, with Manchester being the only site in the UK. The treatment was the most expensive drug in the world when NHS England negotiated a significant confidential discount last year to make the treatment available to NHS patients, but it remains the most expensive drug licensed in Europe.

Cardiff University's Medicines Discovery Institute (MDI) and Astex Pharmaceuticals have announced collaboration to identify and optimise compounds that modulate lysosomal activity. The aim of the multi-year, multimillion pound project is to develop potential new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. MDI and Astex will collaborate to carry out drug discovery research against a chosen lysosomal target with the aim to identify and optimise compounds that modulate it. Cardiff will receive committed R&D funding, and is eligible to receive development and regulatory payments and a royalty payment on the sales of any approved products.

London-based Purespring Therapeutics and Charles River Laboratories International have declared a partnership to create and manufacture plasmid DNA for gene therapy targeting renal diseases, utilising Charles River's existing platform and expertise. Purespring's Adeno Associated Virus (AAV) based gene therapy presents a lower-dose, local delivery method which maximises both safety and effectiveness, as well as reducing the cost of goods. Charles River is broadening its comprehensive cell and gene therapy offering to encompass plasmid DNA, viral vector, and cell therapy production.

London-based LIfT BioSciences and Minaris Regenerative Medicine (Germany) have entered into a development and manufacturing partnership for N-LIfT. N-LIfT is a neutrophil progenitor based Leukocyte Infusion Therapy for the treatment of various cancer indications. The agreement will enable the production of a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant manufacturing process to supply LIfT’s clinical trial programmes in Europe. N-LIfT is made from Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils committed myeloid progenitors from healthy donors with exceptional innate cancer killing properties.

Oxford-based Pictura Bio and the John Radcliffe Hospital have developed an AI-enabled diagnostic test that can identify known respiratory viruses such as influenza and COVID-19 within five minutes from just one nasal or throat swab. This breakthrough in diagnostics testing enables 'facial recognition for germs' and has an accuracy of >97% in under five minutes, allowing for better control of viral outbreaks and alleviating pressure on the NHS.

Cambridge-based Owlstone Medical has published a study in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology which demonstrates that alterations in breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be used to differentially identify liver disease and stage its severity. The study identified a set of volatile organic compounds that can identify patients with liver disease and separate them based on severity, with the potential to develop breath-based diagnostic screening and staging tests for liver disease.

Newcastle-based AMLo Biosciences’s filing for “The Clinical Management of Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma” has been published in US. The patent refers to the biomarker AMBRA1, which is used to identify oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OPSCC) patients suitable for less intensive treatment. This is in response to the increasing incidence of OPSCC, which leads to almost 100,000 deaths per year worldwide. The immunohistochemical test developed by AMLo aims to reduce treatment toxicity and improve patients' quality of life, while maintaining patient outcomes.

London-based Multus Biotechnology has launched a new ingredient, rh-Vitronectin. Vitronectin is a glycoprotein present naturally in animals and can be used with the growth media for cultivated meat to help attachment and speed up the growth and proliferation of cells. The company is developing technology to produce key ingredients for the affordable scale-up of cellular agriculture.

The Wellcome Sanger Institute has appointed Prof Matt Hurles as Director. Prof Hurles co-founded Congenica and has been Head of the Human Genetics Programme at the Sanger Institute since 2017. His research focuses on deciphering the genetic causes of severe developmental disorders. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2019 and Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2017.

Imperial College London [has appointed](https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/243091/professor-ed-tate-appointed-gsk-chair/?) Professor Ed Tate to the GSK Chair in Chemical Biology. His research focuses on creating chemical tags to monitor disease progression and developing small molecules to treat antibiotic-resistant infections and treatment-resistant cancers. This work led to Professor Tate and Dr Robert Solari co-founding a spinout, Myricx Pharma. The Chair will also enable him to nurture new talent, investigate new research directions, and strengthen industry connections.

London-based Keyron has appointed Carl D Francis as its new Chief Executive Officer. Francis was previously the CEO of the nanotechnology group P2i and of the medtech group Eyoto. The company is developing a non-surgical, endoscopically-delivered, and fully reversible treatment as an alternative to drastic bariatric surgeries, and is planning to raise a $15 million Series A funding round. The technology is designed to provide metabolic benefits of gastric bypass surgery. First-in-human trials are planned to begin in early 2024, with FDA clearance targeted for 2028.

London-based Leucid Bio’s current CEO Artin Moussavi is moving to the role of Chief Business Officer. Ian Miscampbell, Non-Executive Chairman, has been promoted to the role of Interim Executive Chairman as the Company seeks a new CEO. Leucid Bio is developing cell therapies for refractory cancers. Its proprietary portfolio is based on a novel approach, which gives properties to CAR-T therapies that enhance potency and generate a persistent long-term response with reduced toxicity. The company raised £11.5 million Series A fundraise in 2021 and is now looking to raise a Series B to pivot from pre-clinical to clinical stage.

Cambridge-based Cambridge Consultants has appointed Monty Barlow as Chief Executive Officer. Barlow will succeed Eric Wilkinson who held the post for 31 years. Barlow has been with Cambridge Consultants for 23 years and was the Chief Technology Officer. He will be leading the global team of engineers, scientists, designers, and consultants to help clients achieve significant positive societal impact.

London-headquartered Silence Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SLN) has appointed J.P. Gabriel as Chief Technical Operations Officer and announced the departure of Jørgen Wittendorff, SVP, Technical Operations. Silence Therapeutics is advancing a clinical pipeline of precision engineered medicines by leveraging its siRNA technology platform. J.P. Gabriel brings over 25 years of industry experience in supply chain, quality assurance and manufacturing (ex-Sanofi, ex-Wyeth (now Pfizer), ex-Genentech). Prior to Silence, he was SVP, Technical Operations at Ocugen (AAV gene therapy, vaccine, and cell therapy development).

Cambridge, MA and Oxford-based SpyBiotech has appointed Eddie Gray as Chair of the Board. He joins from spending 25 years at GSK where he was President of the European Pharmaceutical business and member of the Corporate Executive Team. He was appointed Chair of the UK Government Covid-19 Antivirals Taskforce. SpyBiotech is currently advancing its first vaccine candidate into the clinic, utilising its proprietary SpyTag/SpyCatcher protein superglue enabled VLP-based technology. The company was spun out of the University of Oxford in 2017 by Oxford Science Enterprises and has raised $39 million to date.

Cambridge-based Cydar Medical has appointed Kenneth Hitchner as Chair of the Board. He joins from Goldman Sachs Global Management, where he was Chairman and CEO of Asia Pacific division. The appointment follows a transformative year of expanding the company’s EV Maps product, signing strategic collaborations, and completing a £9 million Series A funding round. Cydar Medical is developing surgical augmented intelligence technology. The company has recently signed collaboration agreements with Medtronic Vascular Inc and BrainLab AG, as well as initiated the UK ARIA1 study.

Oxford-based Adaptix Limited has appointed Willem Baralt as Chair of the Board. Baralat served previously at Quanta Dialysis Technologies and will succeeding Steve McQuillan (Avingtrans). He has extensive experience in the Healthcare, Telecoms & Technology and Finance sectors as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chair/NED. These will be relevant as Adaptix is set to transform imaging diagnostics with its small, affordable, low dose, 3D system. The company has received regulatory clearance and is now transitioning to commercialise its technology.

London-based RQ Bio has appointed Dr W. Ripley Ballou and Dr Jacques Cholat to its Board of Directors as Non-Executive Directors. Currently Dr Ballou serves as a Senior Scientific Advisor to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) where he works on monoclonal antibody programs targeting HIV. In the past, he was Vice President and Head at GSK Global Vaccines and Vice President, Clinical Development at MedImmune. Dr Cholat was previously President of Merck Vaccines. Prior to joining Merck, he was Vice President Commercial Operations International for Sanofi Pasteur and Vice President Commercial Operations Asia Pacific for Aventis. Coulter Partners advised on the appointment. In addition, Alex Marshall, PhD has been appointed as Head of Business Development, Licensing and Alliance Management. He joins from being Senior Director, Transactions & Licensing at Oxford Biomedica. Prior to that, he was Senior Management at Oxford University Innovation.

Oxford-headquartered Adaptimmune Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ADAP) has appointed Kristen M. Hege, M.D. to its Board of Directors and the retirement of Tal Zaks, Non-Executive Director since 2016. Hege brings more than two decades of oncology clinical leadership experience to Adaptimmune's board, and is currently Senior Vice President, Early Clinical Development, Hematology/Oncology & Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb. Adaptimmune focuses on immunotherapy for solid tumours. The company is developing its platform technology SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor) for T-cell engineering.

Cambridge-based Cambridge Nucleomics has announced the company and its CEO Hendrik Rudge, PhD will take part on the Berkeley SkyDeck programme (2022/23 BSEM15). Berkeley SkyDeck programme is UC Berkeley's official startup accelerator. The company is developing technology to separate RNA/DNA oligo-/polynucleotides of interest from total RNA extracts or cell lysates without intermediary steps like reverse transcription or amplification.

Cambridge Science Park has been expanded upon by Canadian investor Cadillac Fairview and UK developer Stanhope PLC, who have acquired an additional property and plan to develop prime life sciences lab space. This builds on their joint venture in October 2022 and their investment in Oxford North, as well as their presence in London's White City Place.

London-headquartered  GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) has announced the US Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval for Jemperli. Jemperli is an immuno-oncology drug for the treatment of adult patients with mismatch repair-deficient recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer. The approval is based on additional data collected from the A1 expansion cohort of the ongoing GARNET trial, which demonstrated an overall response rate of 45.4%, 85.9% of patients having duration of response ≥12 months, and 54.7% of patients having duration of response ≥24 months. Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecology cancer globally.

More on the orange pharma. GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) has released the results of a 17-year retrospective study examining the representation of US-based participants in GSK clinical trials. The study found that using real-world disease epidemiology data, rather than US Census Bureau data, would better ensure clinical trial enrolment reflects the populations affected by different diseases. GSK’s study confirmed that in four disease areas (asthma, COPD, HIV and influenza) census data differed from the epidemiological data

And just one more thing. GSK has ended its collaboration with Vir Biotechnology on COVID-19 antibody and vaccine research projects, while continuing to collaborate on two pandemic assets and programs against other respiratory diseases. Vir will keep working with GSK to provide access to sotrovimab, and Vir plans to continue developing next-generation COVID-19 candidates independently or with other partners.

Cambridge-headquartered Bicycle Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: BCYC) has announced monotherapy Phase I dose escalation results of the ongoing Phase I/II trial of BT8009. BT8009 is a novel BTC targeting Nectin-4, which have demonstrated anti-tumor activity in heavily pre-treated urothelial, lung and breast cancer patients with signs of differentiation compared to antibody-based approaches. The company has established two recommended Phase II doses and is currently focusing its efforts on the 5 mg/m2 weekly dose, with an overall response rate (ORR) of 50% and a clinical benefit rate (CBR) of 75%.

UK-headquartered Cycle Pharmaceuticals has launched Tascenso ODT for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the US. It is a bioequivalent to Gilenya, a sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulator indicated for the treatment of relapsing forms of MS.

Curie.bio, a new US-based venture capital fund for biotech, has launched with a new model for financing the sector. Curie will invest between $5 million and $7 million in exchange for 33% plus 7% for services stake, in a Y-Combinatorfashion. Now, I am unsure how this is genuinely different in the long term from the classic life science fund in the long term. For a biotech, $5-7 million seed does not give a huge runway, Curie.bio will own 40% of the post-seed company, which after a small Series A already means a given syndicate would end up owning around 75%, i.e. the classic. The fund is backed by ARCH Ventures, Casdin Capital, and GV, and has raised more than $500 million. Curie.bio has already invested in four companies: Forward Therapeutics, Astoria Biologica, Decrypt Biomedicine, and Differentiated Therapeutics.

Five EU member states (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium) have launched a €10 billion fund-of-funds to support the growth of European venture capital funds and incentivise EU-domiciled companies to stay within EU borders. The initiative, called the European Tech Champions Initiative, is supported by the European Investment Bank and its European Investment Fund and aims to provide a funding boost to late-stage growth rounds of European tech pioneers. ETCI expects to pursuing a significant increase in the number of €1 billion+ European LP vehicles.

Investment in the UK's cultivated meat sector rose 400% between 2021 and 2022, making Britain the top nation in Europe for sustainable protein funding. However, industry figures are concerned that regulation may be stifling growth and causing startups to look overseas.

Careers in Discovery has talked to Yaniv Erlich, CEO of Eleven Therapeutics. "Academic freedom is a little like french fries - they're not really French, and it's not really freedom", he says. If it helps as a proxy, it is always better to have a CEO with sense of humour. From the science perspective, Eleven Therapeutics is trying to turn RNA drug development into a programmable process

Taylor Wessing has published a good piece summarising the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2023, including takes on M&A, IPOs, private financing, policy, highly-pursued indications and generative AI.

The number of first-time launches of new molecular entities (NME) are projected to outnumber those from established companies by nearly two to one, according to a study published by McKinsey.

Andreessen Horowitz has published a piece on building biotech software-as-a-service (SaaS).