Drug Discovery

Merck to acquire Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience

Merck has agreed to acquire Themis Bioscience, an Austrian pharma company, which is currently engaged in developing a vaccine for COVID-19. 

Shionogi to buy Tetra Therapeutics in $500m deal

Shionogi has agreed to acquire clinical-stage biotechnology company Tetra Therapeutics in a deal valued at around $500m.

Nautilus Biotechnology raises $76m in series B funding to be first to quantify human proteome

Nautilus Biotechnology, a company pioneering a high-throughput, low-cost platform for analyzing and quantifying the human proteome, today announced it has raised $76m in an oversubscribed Series B offering that closed on Monday, May 18, 2020.

Rallybio raises $145m in Series B round for developing rare disease drug candidates

Rallybio, a biopharma company based in Connecticut, has raised $145m in a Series B financing round led by Pivotal bioVenture Partners, for developing therapies for severe and rare disorders.

Boehringer Ingelheim collaborates with CDR-Life to develop antibody fragment-based therapeutics for geographic atrophy

Boehringer Ingelheim and CDR-Life announced they have entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement to research and develop antibody fragment-based therapeutics for geographic atrophy (GA).

Catalent, Ennaid Therapeutics collaborate to develop antiviral treatment for Covid-19 disease

Catalent has collaborated with speciality pharmaceutical company Ennaid Therapeutics for the development of an oral and antiviral treatment for Covid-19 disease.

Moderna gets FDA fast track status for mRNA vaccine against novel coronavirus

Moderna has secured fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its mRNA-1273, the mRNA vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Acer Therapeutics, NCATS to develop emetine as treatment for Covid-19

Acer Therapeutics has joined forces with the US National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to develop emetine hydrochloride as a potential treatment for Covid-19 patients.

JCyte signs ex-US licensing deal with Santen for retinal disease therapy

JCyte has signed an ex-US licensing deal with Japanese ophthalmic company Santen Pharmaceutical worth up to $252m to develop and commercialise its investigational jCell therapy for a rare genetic eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa.