Biotech
McDermott Will & Schulte advised funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. (“Oaktree”) in connection with a new four-year term loan facility of up to $125 million provided to OXB (LSE: OXB), a leading cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). The facility includes $60 million in initial funding, the majority of [...]
An off-the-shelf cancer vaccine has shown potential in lowering the risk of pancreatic and colorectal cancer returning after surgery. The jab works by training the immune system to target and destroy cancer cells that may return after treatment, aiming to reduce relapse. Unlike personalised mRNA vaccines tailored to individual tumours, this non-personalised vaccine is already [...]
Andrew Mernin meets Wendy Hurlburt, president and CEO of Life Sciences British Columbia (LSBC), to find out more about research, investment and trade opportunities in the vast Canadian province. When we meet Wendy Hulburt on the bustling exhibition floor of one of Asia’s biggest health innovation summits, it is immediately clear that she is a leader in [...]
By Zack Mummery & Roberta Sher, Reddie & Grose In a major development for weight management drugs, Eli Lilly recently announced the successful completion of a Phase III clinical trial for orforglipron, a daily oral pill that could rival popular injectable drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Unlike these well-known treatments, orforglipron is a non-peptide [...]
A Northern Ireland medtech firm has signed a licensing agreement with German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, potentially worth over US$1bn for the first three treatment targets. Re-Vana Therapeutics develops drug delivery systems aimed at reducing how often patients with chronic eye conditions need injections, helping improve adherence to treatment. The technology addresses a key challenge [...]
An international AI competition has tested machine learning models on real antiviral data to assess their use in developing coronavirus treatments. The ASAP-Polaris-OpenADMET Challenge involved 66 teams from across the world, each tasked with predicting how well potential drugs could block coronavirus enzymes, as well as assessing their safety and how they bind to viral [...]
Blue Longevity Clinic has raised €2m to expand its longevity medicine clinics in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, supported by proprietary diagnostic protocols and digital tools. The Sofia-based healthtech provider plans to open centres in Sofia, Athens and Istanbul in September this year, offering services aimed at extending healthspan — the number of years lived in [...]
Biostate AI has secured strategic research partnerships in the U.S. and India, and a joint venture in China, dramatically expanding the global dataset for their RNA sequencing-based precision medicine solutions. Biostate AI uses RNA sequencing, a snapshot of gene activity, to build AI models that accurately guide drug development, therapy selection and personalised health predictions. [...]
A new AI model could speed up drug development by reducing the number of parameters needed to predict how molecules bind to proteins — a vital step in designing new drugs. The Predicting Affinity Through Homology (PATH) algorithm cuts the billions of variables used in traditional deep learning, allowing predictions to be traced to specific [...]
Femtech company Daye has secured a patent for its organic tampon, which can be used for both menstrual care and diagnostics. The patent covers the tampon’s design and manufacturing process. It features plastic-free materials, a protective sleeve to prevent fibre shedding, dual surfaces for absorbing fluid, and a cupped tip that expands evenly to reduce [...]
