Drug Discovery

AstraZeneca’s MedImmune spins out biotech to focus on autoimmune candidates

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, is creating a stand-alone company for early-stage inflammation and autoimmunity biologics.

Senti Biosciences secures $53m funding to advance therapeutic design platform

Senti Biosciences has completed a $53m round of funding to support the expansion of their therapeutic design platform.

BenevolentAI buys drug discovery and development facility in Cambridge, UK

BenevolentAI has acquired an advanced drug discovery and development facility on the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK, for an undisclosed sum.

New collaborative project to develop Zika virus vaccine for pregnant women

A new collaborative project has been launched to develop a Zika virus vaccine that is suitable for use in pregnancy.

Kite, Sangamo form $3bn cancer cell therapy collaboration

Gilead Sciences’ subsidiary Kite has agreed to use Sangamo Therapeutics’ zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology platform to develop cancer treatments in a collaboration deal worth over $3bn.

Emulate, Roche partner to apply organ-chips to drug efficacy and safety

Scientists from Emulate and Roche have partnered to use Organ-Chips for testing of efficacy and safety of new antibody therapeutics and combination therapies.

ATUM, Just Biotherapeutics collaborate to speed up drug discovery

ATUM has signed a patent licensing agreement, which gives Just Biotherapeutics access to its Leap-In cell line development tools.

Merck to buy Viralytics to boost immuno-oncology pipeline

Merck has agreed to acquire Australian biotechnology firm Viralytics, which is focused on developing oncolytic immunotherapy treatments for cancers, for about A$502m ($394m).

Roche to buy oncology software provider Flatiron Health for $1.9bn

Swiss drugmaker Roche has agreed to acquire Flatiron Health, a US-based healthcare technology and services company, for $1.9bn.