Startups
Since Amgen shut down its Bothell, Wash. site in 2014, life science employment growth has increased 13 percent across the state. According to The Seattle Times, companies across the region are in a scaling up process.
Lots of interesting biotech news from Asia, Europe and elsewhere was reported this week. From tapeworms to using a breathalyzer test in lung cancer diagnostics, the global biotech industry is exploding with ideas.
Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is spinning off its innovation business into a standalone company based in the United States. The new business will have its own chief executive officer and board of directors.
Philadelphia-based Passage Bio launched with a Series A financing round worth $115.5 million. It was led by OrbiMed Advisors and joined by Frazier Healthcare Partners, Versant Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners, Vivo Capital and Lilly Asia Ventures.
Axovant Sciences, one of Vivek Ramaswamy’s biotech companies under the Roivant Sciences’ umbrella, is forming a company called Arvelle Therapeutics. Arvelle is a strategic transition of Axovant’s legacy small molecule team.Biopharmaceuticals
Late last week, company researchers presented preliminary, unpublished “proof of concept” data in mice demonstrating the safety and efficacy of AAV treatments at the 15th Annual WORLDSymposium conference in Orlando.
IFM Therapeutics is launching its second subsidiary in less than a year. This morning, the Boston-based company, launched IFM Due (pronounced du-way), a subsidiary company developing a suite of cGAS inhibitors and STING antagonists that can target diseases like NASH, lupus and Parkinson’s.
Recurrence of cancer, which is the cause of many cancer deaths, is driven by dormant disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) that remain undetected in the body for long periods of time. HiberCell is working to develop first-in-class drugs that target DTCs that originate from solid and liquid tumors.
Robert Mahley, founder and president of Gladstone Institutes, an internationally-recognized expert on heart disease, cholesterol metabolism and Alzheimer’s disease, is launching a biotech company to focus on Alzheimer’s disease. The company is called GABAeron.
Sirion Biotech International threw a Bavarian-themed grand opening party at the Forsythe Institute on Feb. 1. The new headquarters are in Cambridge, Mass and currently have five employees.
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