The startup is now looking for a lead investor for its Series A round to fund the company’s go-to market roadmap.
Image: Sam Owen is founder and CEO of D.C.-based Otolith Labs ALEXANDRA WHITNEY PHOTOGRAPHY
Introduction
The UK formally left the EU on 31st January 2020 and the transition period, as set out in the withdrawal agreement, will come to an end on 31st December 2020. During this transition period the UK has continued to remain under EU pharmaceutical law.
From 1st January 2021 the UK will be able to adopt an independent regulatory framework with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) positioned as the stand-alone regulator for medicines and medical devices.
Negotiations between the EU and UK are still ongoing to define the future relationship and with only a matter of months left before the end of the transition period there has been no formal agreement. For the pharmaceutical industry this presents numerous challenges as companies prepare to continue supply of medicines that comply with new legislation. The preferred outcome for many within the industry will be to implement a mutual recognition agreement for areas such as GMP certification, batch testing, etc. between the UK and EU. It is unclear at this stage if an encompassing mutual recognition agreement is achievable so all involved parties should be preparing for a ‘no deal’ scenario and review existing guidance to understand risk exposure and mitigating actions.
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have done an excellent job creating outsized wealth for their investors over the years. From 1972 through the end of last year, REITs generated an average annual total return of 13.3%, which outperformed the S&P 500’s 12.1% total return. Those higher long-term returns mean REITs have turned small initial investments into big-time paydays at a faster pace than the S&P 500.
New Enterprise Associates Inc., one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, is in talks to sell a minority stake in itself, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Silicon Valley firm has held discussions with several potential investors, said the people, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. No deal has been reached, and it’s possible one won’t materialize. Representatives for NEA didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Image: NEA’s Scott Sandell Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Johns Hopkins moved up a spot to No. 10 in the annual U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Rankings released today, a year after moving up to No. 11 from No. 12 in the 2020 rankings.
Johns Hopkins also ranks among the top 10 universities in the world in 15 subject areas and among the top 20 in 19 subject areas. Ten new subject area rankings were added to the list this year, bringing the total to 38.
Image: https://hub.jhu.edu
In a long-awaited meeting on America’s crash program to deliver vaccines against the Covid-19 coronavirus, leaders of the program reviewed the measures they have taken to assure the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration convened a panel of independent vaccine experts to ask questions during the Thursday online session. The meeting was designed to reassure the public on the integrity and transparency of the FDA’s vaccine oversight, as the agency has wrestled with political pressure and pockets of public vaccine hesitancy.
MARSEILLE, France, Oct. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Innate Pharma SA (Euronext Paris: IPH – ISIN: FR0010331421; Nasdaq: IPHA) (“Innate” or the “Company”) today announced that AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) has dosed the first patient in its Phase 3 clinical trial, INTERLINK-1, evaluating monalizumab in combination with cetuximab in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M SCCHN) who have been previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy and PD-(L)1 inhibitors (“IO-pretreated”). Monalizumab, Innate’s lead partnered asset, is a potentially first-in-class immune checkpoint inhibitor targeting NKG2A receptors expressed on tumor infiltrating cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and NK cells.
Dosing of the first patient in this trial has triggered a $50 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca to Innate.
She said the Rockville research company is set to grow and details Covid’s larger impact on research.
Image: Dr. Christine Dingivan took over as president and CEO of Rockville contract research organization Emmes at the end of September. COURTESY EMMES
The biotech behind AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford’s late-stage pandemic vaccine has hired Margaret (Meg) Marshall, M.D., as its new chief medical officer.
Marshall joined as a consultant to Oxford spinout Vaccitech in the summer, but she now jumps on board full time. This comes two months after it nabbed U.K. government funding for a COVID-19 vaccine it thinks can improve on first-generation prospects, including the AstraZeneca vaccine it helped develop.
Image: Vaccitech’s headquarters in Oxford, England (Jun via Flickr/CC-by-SA 2.0)
America’s long-term economic growth demands a stepped-up commitment to promoting the innovation impact of the nation’s top-tier universities and other research institutions.
For research institutions themselves, this commitment means prioritizing research, empowering great researchers, building efficient and outcomes-focused technology transfer operations, instilling cultures of innovation and entrepreneurship, and engaging with surrounding business and innovation communities. For America as a whole, it means funding more research resources and paying more attention to the worldwide competition for human talent, including high-skilled immigrants.