Four Nations Biotech! Investment in seed-stage startups outside London increased by 88% last year. Maybe the post-seed stage ones might be catching up this year … see Cardiff! This week, Cardiff-based Jellagen has raised £8.7 million Series A and Molecular Devices has acquired organoids technology company Cellesce. Back into the Triangle, Pulmocide has raised extended Series C, and BactoBio has secured bridge investment. Brilliant innovation from the University of Liverpool and the Dana-Faber Cancer Centre has chosen the US to form a new venture tapping into deubiquitinases. Just in case you have not been on top of your Autolus news: the company has announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering and Synconawill remain owning 18.5% of the stock. In addition, it has received $70 million in millestone payments from Blackstone Life Sciences. Also, Autolus is on the right track with its CD19 CAR-T cell therapy and might be joining the arena to compete Bristol Meyers, Gilead and Novartis anytime soon. Novartis is also battling to achieve FDA authorisation with its therapy for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Naturally, AstraZeneca is looking at the rear mirror, as they acquired Alexion’s Soliris and Ultomiris for the same indication. More on why it takes two for tango in the Pharma Affairs section, guest star: Enhertu and TROP2 antibody-drug conjugate. Cancer Research Horizons has announced the winners of the 2022 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards. The Science News section is thriving this week: Metrion Biosciences and Kv3.1, Owlstone and breath biopsys, and Ultromics and EchoGo. You will notice a slight change in the newsletter format, hopefully it improves readability, but happy to hear your opinions. World-class lineup in the Interesting readings section: Bahija Jallal, Marcel Gehrung, Tim Minshall, Kerry Baldwin, Anne Glover and Herman Hausser. Beyond Biotech? Leonard Cohen and Haruki Murakami. Let’s dive in!

London-based Pulmocide has raised $52 million series C extension round, totalling $147.5 million. The investment was led by new investors Pictet Alternative Advisors and Vivo Capital, and parcicipated by SV Health Investors, Jeito Capital, SR One, IP Group plc, F-Prime Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Adjuvant Capital, Asahi Kasei Pharma, Longwood Fund, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The company is developing inhaled therapies for patients serious acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further fund clinical development, manufacturing scale-up, and preparation for potential commercialisation of opelconazole. Opelconazole is a triazole antifungal designed for use as an inhaled therapy against pulmonary aspergillosis. Phase 2b clinical trial using opelconazole as a monotherapy is ongoing for prophylaxis against aspergillus infections in patients following lung transplant surgery.

Jellagen has raised £8.7 million Series A. The round was participated by Cardiff Capital Region, Development Bank of Wales, Thai Union Group PCL and existing shareholders. The company is developing jellyfish-derived collagen – Collagen Type 0, bypassing current collagen sources such as pigs, cows and rats, and the associated risks. Collagen Type 0 can be used as biomaterial for skin diseases and tissue reconstruction. The proceedings of the round will be used to advance its leading program towards human trials and regulatory filing.

London-based Bactobio has raised £6 million bridge investment. The round was led by Bridford Group and participated by angel investors Peder Holk Nielsen (Former CEO and President of Novozymes) and Hugh Grant(Former Chairman and CEO of Monsanto), and the founders of the fintech unicorn Lendable and Entangle Group. Bactobio is developing antimicrobial solutions from previously unexplored microbes with an improved safety and sustainability profile. It has build a library of microbes leveraging synthetic biology and machine learning that enables deeper exploration of the chemical space. The proceedings of the round will be used to advance discovery pipeline.

Stevenage-based MicrofluidiX has raised £3.3 million investment. The round was participated by Longwall Ventures, UKI2S, Perscitus, J.B. Ugland Venture AS, Puffin Point Ltd, and Esco LifeSciences. Microfluidix aims to improve the state of the art in regards to commercialisation and clinical translation of advance therapies. The company is developing CytoEngine, a biomanufacturing scalable, automated platform fro cell and gene therapies. The platform allows scaling from research purposes to large-scale GMP manufacture processes. The proceedings of the round will be used to advance product development and set up further pilot manufacturing feasibility lines (including ongoing ones with VTT Finland and Jabil Healthcare).

London-based Zoe Health has raised £25 million extended Series B. The round was led by Accomplice and participated by Balderton Capital, Ahren Capital, Daphni, and L Catterton. The company was founded in 2017 and is developing home testing kits for customers to gain insights into their gut and blood health. The proceedings of the round will be used to advance product development and onboard thew 250,000 users currently on a waiting list.

US-based Molecular Devices has acquired Cardiff-based Cellesce. Financial details have not been disclosed. Cellesce specialises in contract development and manufacturing of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) for large scale drug screening. Molecular Devices, a leading player in bioanalytical measurement systems, software and consumables for life science research, will incorporate Cellesce’s organoid technology to increase its screaning capabilities, allowing 100,000 compound primary screens with PDOs, as well as its patented bioprocess workflow and bioreactors, which have yielded 20- to 60-fold increase in productivity.

US-based Enact Bio has launched with $81 million Series A. The round was co-led by Qiming Venture Partners USA and venBio Partners, and participated by new investors Abingworth, Brandon Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Logos Capital, Surveyor Capital, and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and founding investors 4BIO Capital and Arkin Bio Ventures. The company is founded by Michael Clague, PhD, and Sylvie Urbé, PhD (both Prof Molecular & Cellular Physiology at the University of Liverpool); David Sheppard, PhD(Director at Suffolk-based Sheppard R&D Consultancy), alongside other founders from the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute and WEHI. The company is developing enhancement-targeting chimeric (ENTAC) medicines, which enhance protein function by harnessing deubiquitinase function.

London-headquartered Autolus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AUTL) has announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering. The United States of 75,000,000 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) representing 75,000,000 ordinary shares, will be priced at a public offering price of $2.00/ADS, for total gross proceeds of approximately $150 million. Autolus is currently participated by Syncona. The fund has agreed to invest $28 million in the offering, thus retaining a stake of approximately 18.5% in Autolus. The stock offering follows up Autolus announcement in regard to meeting its primary endpoint in its pivotal FELIX trial for adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) therapy.

British Patient Capital has announced it manages assets totalling £3,075 million. The fund has invested £1,635 million across 61 fund commitments, 4 co-investments and 5 Future Fund: Breakthrough deals. In 2021/22, BPC invested for a total value of £341 million across 10 investments, including Nucleome Therapeutics (series A), Iceotope (Series B), and Oxford Quantum Circuits (Series A). The total portfolio Internal Rate of Return since inception for the core programme was 32.9% to end of March 2022. In addition, four of its investment have become unicorns: Wayve, GoCardless, Lendable and Thought Machine.

Conviction Life Science will float in London in an £100 million IPO to capitalise on biotech and pharma companies, led by Andrew Craig.

Cancer Research UK has announced the Therapeutic Catalyst funding scheme aiming to accelerate the translation of laboratory discoveries into novel cancer therapeutics. Proposals including but not limited to validation of novel targets with therapeutic potential, novel therapeutic approaches to validated targets and platform development are encouraged. Successful projects will receive up to £250k for up to 18 months.

Innovate UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council have announced up to £2 million joint investment to advance sustainable biomanufacturing. Details of the funding scheme can be found here.

CBRE has published the report Trends that transcend the US-UK Life Sciences where it outlines some of the factors that make the UK a favourable place for investment. These include biomanufacturing capabilities, the role or incubators, the venture capital and real state development pipeline and the government funding in the sector.

It might just begin to look like Christmas for seed stage startups outside London as investment grew by 88% last year. In contrast, seed stage in London fell by 22%, according to data from the British Business Bank’s Annual Nations and Regions Tracker. Still, London represents 66% of the investment and 49% of the deals.

Amana Global Partners has raised a $50 million fund and further $50 million for co-investments. The fund will focus on life sciences and will operate in London, Boston, New York, Riyadh, Dubai, Mumbai, and Taipei. The fund is co-founded by Sajal Jagdish Heda and Talal Marwan Al Ajou.

Paris-headquartered Partech has raised £103.1 million for its fourth seed fund. The firm aims to support approximately 50 companies with investments from £258,000 to £2.6 million. Recently, Paratech invested in V7 (AI-data labeling), Peanut *social media for women) and Cazoo (car buying platform).

Cambridge-based Owlstone Medical has launched Breath Biopsy Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Atlas. Breath analysis has advanced over the last 20 years but the rate of biomarker discovery has remained low. Owlstone’s Atlas is a catalog of over 150 validated and quantitated chemicals commonly found on breath. These can be used in biomarker discovery in combination with the company’s Breath Biopsy OMNI platform, providing reduced variability, improved data quality and higher throughput.

Cambridge-based Metrion Biosciences has entered a partnership with non-profit Toronto-based KCNC1 Foundation. The collaboration aims to identify small molecule modulators of the potassium ion channel Kv3.1, targeting KCNC1-related disorders, which can result in neurodevelopmental disorders such as progressive myolclonic epilepsy and developmental epileptic encephalopathy. Metrion will develop cell lines for both wild type and variant Kv3.1, to establish a fluorescence-based screen using its recently acquired high throughput screening system.

Oxford-based Ultromics has received US FDA clearance for its EchoGo heart failure device. EchoGo is an AI-enabled platform that enables detection of hearth failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) from a single echocardiogram image, which accounts for 50% of the 64 million cases of heart failure worldwide. Current diagnostic solutions miss out detection in up to 75% of the cases as HFpEF is an heterogeneous syndrome that can be challenging to identify (time consuming, highly specialised, invasive procedure).

Hampton-based Touchlight has granted access to its proprietary doggybone DNA (dbDNA) vector technology to Odimma Therapeutics (France). The agreement provides Odimma with clinical supply of personalised dbDNA to support its oncological neoantigen program, for which clinical enrolment is expected to start in 2023. Touchlight’s dbDNA is a minimal, linear, double stranded, covalently closed DNA vector. It is which is produced through an enzymatic manufacturing process and can accommodate more than 20kb inserts.

Merck and Cancer Research UK-spinout (Geneva-based) iOnctura has initiated Phase 1b in pancreatic cancer trial for its IOA-289. The candidate is an orally-dosed small molecule autotaxin (ATX) inhibitor. ATX is a tumorsurvival factor, especially in highly fibrotic malignancies such as pancreatic, liver, colorectal, ovarian and breast cancers. IOA-289 was originally designed and synthesised in Cancer Research Horizon’s Therapeutic Innovations Labs and later licensed to iOnctura in 2019.

London-based Engtix Therapeutics has published research in collaboration with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, University College London, University of Cambridge and Harvard University. The paper ‘Tissue-Specific Human Extracellular Matrix Scaffolds Promote Pancreatic Tumour Progression and Chemotherapy Resistance’ has been published in Cells (MDPI). Egnitix developing a proprietary human extracellular matrix (ECM)-based discovery platform to develop therapies for fibrosis and solid tumours.

London-based Institute of Cancer Research in collaboration with Astex Pharmaceuticals have announced positive results for CAPItello-291 trial. The Phase 3 CAPItello-291 study shown capivasertib combined with hormone therapy doubled the time it took for cancer to progress in people with advanced forms of the most common type of breast cancer. If approved, it can potentially become a first-in-class for people with oestrogen receptor (ER) positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) negative breast cancer. The trial is funded by AstraZeneca.

Cancer Research Horizons has announced the winners of the 2022 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards: Anjui W. and Susanti Susanti (Early-career Entrepreneur of the Year); Prof Claire Lewis (Woman Entrepreneur of the Year); Adendra Therapeutics (Startup Achievement of the Year); iDx Lund (Further Faster Together Industry-Academia Collaboration); Prof Steve Jackson (Cancer Research Horizons Entrepreneurship Award); and Prof Rebecca Fitzgerald (Cancer Research Horizons Impact Recognition Award). Prof Rebecca Fitzgerald co-foundedCambridge-based Cyted.ai (AI solutions for disease detection and risk stratification) was also short-listed in the Startup Achievement of the Year.

The Government is using the Vaccine Taskforce model to tackle health challenges. In addition, it has announced £113 million to fund research into 4 healthcare in cancer (£22.5 million), obesity (£20 million), mental health (£40.2 million) and addiction (£30.5 million) to discover new medicines and diagnostics tools. The government reports £1 billion investment has been brought to the UK upon launching the Life Sciences Vision program.

Innovate Cambridge has achieved the support from Arm, Microsoft and AstraZeneca. The initiative was launched in September 2022 by Cambridge Enterprise, Cambridge Innovation Capital and the University of Cambridge to promote globally the scientiofic and technological innovation originating in Cambridge. In addition, Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CogX, has been appointed as Executive Director and Lord David Willetts as Chair of the Steering Committee. Ant Rowstron (Distinguished Engineer & Deputy Lab Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge) and Shaun Grady (Senior Vice-President Business Development Operations at AstraZeneca) have also joined the Committee.

The BioIndustry Association has announced Bowel Cancer UK as its charity partner for 2023. The partnership aims to raise awareness, advance employee fundraising activities, and increase research interest in the disease, the UK’s second cause of death due to cancer.

Cambridge Ahead has appointed Andy Brown (Chartered Engineer, Group Corporate Affairs Director at Manchester Airports Group) and Dr Andy Williams (business representative on the Greater Cambridge Partnership Executive Board) to its Board of Directors. Cambridge Ahead aims to promote sustainable economic growth in the region.

Cambridge-based Metrion Biosciences has expanded its facilities at Granta Park totalling 20,000 sq ft. The company has also launched its High Throughput Screening (HTS) capability and appointed Scott Maidment as Head of HST. Maidment joins from Charles River Laboratories, where he was Senior Research Leader. The expansion will allow Metrion to continue its expansion as specialist ion channel contract research and drug discovery company in the UK and US markets.

Oxford-based Alethiomics has doubled its lab space in the BioEscalator. The company is developing therapies for certain forms of chronic blood cancers referred as myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Autolus has announced the handover of its first manufacturing suit ‘The Nucleus’ (Reef Group) at Stevenage.

Oxford-based Pathios Therapeutics has appointed Jeanmarie Guenot, PhD as Non-Executive Director. Currently, Dr Guenot is founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Toreador Therapeutics (bispecific for the treatment of cancer). In 2013, she founded Amphivena Therapeutics, where she oversaw raising $62 million Series C. Prior to that, she was CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HARP), from where Maverick Therapeutics span out (acquired by Takeda). Pathios is developing small-molecule inhibitors of the pH-sensing G protein-coupled receptor GPR65 to target immunosuppressive macrophages in advanced cancers.

Cambridge-based Dunad Therapeutics has appointed Elayne Penebre, PhD as Vice President of Biology. Dr Penebre joins from Faze Medicines, where she led the Biology division developing biomolecular condensate as a therapy for unmet clinical needs such as ALS and oncology indications. Dunad is developing orally bioavailable and CNS-accessible targeted protein degradation therapies.

London-based Coulter Partners has appointed Dr Hannah Musisi, MBA as Executive Director. Dr Musisi will support the firm’s work in the digital health sector, while collaborating with Ian Coyne (Executive Director). She brings over 20 years of experience across consulting, sales, and growth in various sectors such energy, media, digital health. Coulter Partners is a consulting firm specialising in the life science and biotech sector.

Saffron Walden-based Domainex has appointed Andrea Fuller as Director of Human Resources. Fuller brings more than 20 years of experience and has held senior human resources roles at Associated British Foods and Tesco. Domainex is drug discovery service company including computational and analytical chemistry services.

London-headquartered Autolus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AUTL) has received $70 million in millestone payments from Blackstone Life Sciences. Autolus and Blackstone entered into a collaboration in November 2021, whereby Blackstone would provide up to $250 million in equity and product financing to support Autolus’ advancement ofobecabtagene autoleucel (obe-cel). Obe-cel is a CD19 CAR-T cell investigational therapy. $35 million have been payed out as a result of positive data from Autolus’s pivotal FELIX Phase 2 data of obe-cel in relapsed/refractory (r/r) adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The remaining $35 million are granted due to completion of activities to support obe-cel manufacturing process. Despite the financial boost, Autolus held a stock offering.

London-headquartered Autolus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AUTL) is on the right track with its CD19 CAR-T cell therapy after meeting the Phase 2 primary endopoint. If approved by the end of next year, Autolus would join Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead (Tecartus) and Novartis (Kymriah) in the therapeutic arena. Autolus has tried to differentiate by incorporating technology to reduce toxicity and T-cell exhaustion with the therapy.

London-headquartered Achilles Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACHL) has announced Phase I/IIa update. Results show clonal neoantigen reactive T cells (cNeT) monotherapy leads to partial response and stable disease in heavily pre-treated patients with advanced unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Additional monotherapy data and initial anti-PD-1 combination are expected in 2023.

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’ Dato-DXd (a TROP2 antibody-drug conjugate) has delivered promising early-phase results. The trial covered a 41- cohort where patients had HR-positive, HER2-low or negative, metastatic breast cancer and previously received a median of five lines of treatment for metastatic disease. Although these results are not a direct comparison, they may challenge Gilead’s trial for Trodelvy ($21 billion Immunomedics acquisition).

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu is in head-to-head trial against Roche’s Kadcyla. Enhertu shown a 22-month improvement in median progression-free survival. Patients on Enhertu lived a median of 28.8 months without disease progression versus 6.8 months for those taking Kadcyla.

Novartis has shown its clinical candidate iptacopan increases hemoglobin levels in a paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. The results, as also shown in October (Phase 3 APPLY trial) improve the current therapies on the market: Alexion’s Soliris and Ultomiris. AstraZeneca acquired Alexion for $39 billion in 2019 and a potential approval of Novartis’ iptacopan may mean a head to head race in the therapeutic space.

Cambridge-headquartered F-star (NASDAQ: FSTX) has announced Phase 1 Interim Efficacy and Safety Results data for its FS222 candidate. FS222 is a CD137/PD-L1 targeting tetravalent bispecific antibody and targets critical tumoral immune-suppressing pathways via PD-L1 checkpoint blockade. It has been designed for non-squamous NSCLC, PD-(L)1 therapy naïve patients.

Brighton-headquartered Destiny Pharma (AIM: DEST) has shared published findings from the US FDA and Centers for Disease Control on prevention of hospital-acquired infection. The findings are in line with the company’s approach for its XF-73 nasal program, one of the infection prevention clinical programmes Destiny is trialling.

The Financial Times has interviewed Bahija Jallal, CEO of Immunocore, ****former President of MedImmune and later Executive Vice-President of AstraZeneca. Interesting to see the role of perseverance and intuition in her decision making.

Deep learning and disease detection: great interview with Marcel Gehrung, PhD, co-founder of **Cyted.ai** on what is to come to Cambridge to do a PhD and end up founding a company as well as his experience as founder.

Cambridge Tech Podcast has talked to Tim Minshall, Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing, and Head of the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management. They discuss Prof Minshall coming book and how improve manufacturing processes for a better world.

The Times has interviewed Kerry Baldwin, managing partner of Cambridge-based IQ Capital. Great learnings in leading the fund through a portfolio of more than 70 investments.

Amadeus Capital Partners podcasts has talked to Anne Glover and Hermann Hauser about the course of the fund during the last 25 years. Amadeus has raised over $1 billion and invested in more than 190 companies.