Start-Ups & SMEs

Zenas BioPharma plans to have data from four trials – two under way and two starting this summer – for obexelimab, which targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, within about a year and a half.

Private Company Edition: First quarter data again confirm fewer but larger VC rounds in Q1. Big Q2 rounds include a $132.5m series C round for Endeavor Biomedicines, a $103m series A round for Reunion Neuroscience and Enlaza’s $100m series A.

C-suite leaders from Lilly, Roche and J&J spoke at a Citeline-sponsored panel at Swiss Biotech Day in Basel and offered encouragement to start-ups trying to negotiate the tricky financial landscape.

In this video interview, Sharon Chan, vice-president, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS Asia Pacific, shares her views on what South Korea’s strengths are as a biotech and medtech R&D hub, JLABS's plans in the country and what role it wants for its local activities domestically and beyond.

Ono’s just-announced purchase of Deciphera has put the tenosynovial giant cell tumor space under the spotlight and SynOx is making strides to stay at the head of the pack helped by significant financing.

ARCH and Foresite incubated the company and recruited Genentech R&D veteran Marc Tessier-Lavigne to keep data generation, machine learning research and drug development under one roof.

UK-based Ochre Bio has signed its first major deal with Boehringer Ingelheim. Scrip talked to its co-founder and CEO, Jack O’Meara, about its human tissue-based drug discovery platform, its resulting RNA platform for liver disease and how the fledgling drug company's early work mirrored that seen in diagnostics.

Major Japanese companies Takeda, Astellas and SMBC are joining hands to establish a new joint venture with $3.9m capital and based in Japan’s largest biocluster Shonan iPark to help incubate local biopharma start-ups.

Corbus has presence in both antibody drug conjugates and obesity, and was the stand-out small-cap target for investors with a fivefold increase in its share price in Q1.

Private Company Edition: Regeneron launched a $500m venture fund and Canaan added $100m, bringing the venture firm’s recent total to $1bn-plus. Also, incubators plan to grow over the next decade and in recent financings Avenzo raised $150m and Nvelop launched with $100m.

The top 10 biggest share price winners and losers in Q1 from Evaluate show the investor frenzy for obesity drugs continues, while companies with governance doubts see shareholders retreat.

Clive Meanwell, former CEO of The Medicines Company, will helm the new company, backed by ARCH and other investors. He talked to Scrip about the new venture.