Lack of innovation in Europe, Ireland builds tens of millions of fund, UK cell therapy receives tens of millions of investment

Source: Ding Xiangyuan 2014-05-27 Pfizer's attempt to acquire AstraZeneca made the headlines of the week In fact, many of AstraZeneca's real values are not in Europe, and some views believe that the company is "weak in innovation" on the continent Usually one reason for this is a lack of money, but this week is a good time for European biotech companies to raise money The Irish government has provided 30 million euros ($41 million) of life science funds, while Israel's biotechnology enlivex and many other companies have invested in cash since the start of cell therapy in the UK Many British entrepreneurs are concentrated in the golden triangle of Cambridge, London and Oxford, resulting in a shortage of investors The north of England has been trying to prove investment potential comparable to the golden triangle or any biosphere in Europe, and universities and hospitals in the region are trying to draw investors' attention to the region 1 The "lack of innovation" in Europe casts a shadow on AstraZeneca Just as some AstraZeneca shareholders are still trying to resume the deal with Pfizer, the public view is that the acquisition is very good for the development of life science in the UK and Sweden However, there is a question to face: how will they innovate? After the financial times took this issue as a starting point to observe the so-called "lack of innovation in Europe", AstraZeneca's evaluation of its products is optimistic, showing that its assets will grow in the next few years, but observers have noticed that many candidate drugs are purchased from other companies, mainly some American companies MedImmune, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca, has developed a small number of new drug compounds, although it is not clear whether the new drugs are from laboratories in the UK or North America But overall, AstraZeneca's products suggest that the company relies heavily on third-party laboratories in California, while its R & D department is in Europe AstraZeneca's difficulty in drug development and its desire to lay off staff in its R & D department may explain its poor internal R & D, but the same is true for European start-ups In the UK and continental Europe as a whole, the gap between academic research and commercial products has been a headache for politicians across the continent A lack of funding is often seen as an obstacle 2 The Irish government has committed to invest 30 million euros in Lightstone venture capital fund The Irish government has committed to provide 30 million euros ($41 million) life science fund, which is operated by Lightstone venture capital company Irish leaders said funding would support start-ups in the country's biopharmaceutical industry and provide jobs The Irish enterprise authority provides 20 million euros, with the remaining 10 million euros provided by the national retirement reserve fund (NPRF) Ireland's money helped Lightstone raise $172 million, which is a short way from the $250 million it hopes to raise, but this upfront funding is still a considerable amount of money the Dublin government will provide Lightstone with a base to improve its global layout To look for local investment opportunities, the Dublin office will support Lightstone's portfolio of European companies At present, the vast majority of the portfolio is for US companies, especially California start-ups, but this may change due to the rapid rise of their European offices 3 The UK joint venture company has injected 10 million pounds into the clinical treatment of cell therapy The imperial Department of technology and innovation and the business department of University College London have jointly invested in the new treatment concept of acute myeloid leukemia The government is committed to supporting the development of cell therapy through R & D investment of up to £ 10 million Treatment involves modifying the patient's T cells through gene therapy After the T cells are corrected, they will be transfused back into the body, which will catch the high expression cells of WT1 and then kill them 4 The northern union of England is trying to become the top biosphere in Europe Since the research and development of antiscarring medicine of renovo company failed, the northern biosphere of England has lagged behind the golden triangle of Cambridge, London and Oxford, which is not valued by investors At present, 16 universities and medical institutions in the region are regrouping to establish a northern base As a result, the northern Life Sciences Alliance (NHSA) was established, with R & D funding of £ 740 million (about $1.2 billion), participation of eight universities, and participation of eight medical institutions with nearly 150000 patients From Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield to Durham, Newcastle or beyond, the alliance will form a trans regional life science and health care system to cope with the current situation of cash and talent flowing to the southeast AstraZeneca and Novartis have branches in northern England NHSA claims that the region accounts for nearly half of UK pharmaceutical exports, but the reality is that the region manufactures more than research and development AstraZeneca decided to move its R & D department from Manchester to Cambridge, but investing in the manufacturing sector in the northwest suggests the geographical distribution of bioscience in the UK NHSA hopes to develop and validate more biotechnology in the region 5 Enlivex raised US $7 million to compete in the Israeli biotechnology GVHD market A group of investors led by the chief executive officer of opko biology proposed US $70 million for enlivex treatment, which is planned to be used in the treatment of organ transplant rejection disease (GVHD) The cellular immunotherapy, known as apocell, was approved by the US FDA last year to obtain the rare drug self-improvement, and the phase IIa data has been obtained Thanks to this capital injection, enlivex is now ready to advance apocell to the next stage of development Hadasit bio holdings, which accounts for 92% of the $7 million invested in enlivex, started looking for financing earlier this year Note: in two days of trading, santhera pharmaceutical's share price rose more than 100% due to rumors of acquisition After the rumors began, santhera released the positive data of its phase III trial of DMD drug But the lack of cash has been santhera's problem, but at this week's annual meeting, chairman Martin Gertsch said the company could get capital through conditional authorization and be drawn from the funds for licensing transactions and the sale of raxone Santhera also published a secondary endpoint for its DMD trial Russian billionaire Vladimir Abramovich's investment company plans to buy 50% of BioCad, a biosimilars development company in St Petersburg, Russia, Bloomberg reported OAO Pharma, Russia's largest pharmaceutical company, will take a 20% stake in BioCad BioCad has developed imitations of rituximab, Herceptin, Avastin and other biological products Amgen and Pfizer were reported to have watched BioCad last summer, but at that time it was worth as much as $1 billion Kymab has raised $40 million from the Wellcome Trust and the bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop antibody product lines and expand its vaccine antigen research and development Kymab worked with the Sanger Institute of the Wellcome Trust in 2009 and received £ 200000 the following year The Dutch government provides 8.6 million euros to two local biotechnology companies Mucosis received a credit line of 5 million euros for the clinical development of its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, while lanthio pharmaceutical obtained 3.6 million euros for the treatment of its pulmonary fibrosis Lanthio needs to get phase II proof of concept data to get about a third of the loan Due to the failure of the phase III trial of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency drug, Israeli biotech Kamada suffered its largest ever share price plunge, with its shares in Tel Aviv down 36% Kamada still plans to approve the drug in Europe, but analysts have big doubts about whether the company can persuade regulators Lysogene, a French start-up of gene therapy, was locked up for 16.5 million euros because of its sofinnova deadlock Lysogene will use cash to expand its clinical trials in the treatment of San felibo syndrome, which have been used from phase I to phase II trial data, on the other hand, to promote drugs targeting gene central nervous system diseases Neuroderm, an Israeli biopharmaceutical company, filed a confidential IPO, the Globe reported The company submitted documents six weeks ago, including a selection of drugs for Parkinson's disease But as the IPO market has cooled, it is unclear when neuroderm will go public Source address: http://