On 8 March 2021 ALSA Ventures reported the launch of Promatix Inc., a Delaware incorporated company, to develop novel therapeutics with the potential to transform the treatment of cancer (Press release, Promatix Biosciences, MAR 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234629078]). Promatix will use its multi-omic proprietary database, TxPro, to mine for novel, and validate existing, drug targets.

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

"As we mark off the 20th anniversary of drafting the human genome, it’s clear we’re still in the early innings of a revolution in molecular biology. Taking a multi-omic approach to novel drug discovery, aided by advances in AI technology, Promatix will take a highly focused, data driven approach, to hunt for novel targets in oncology indications of unmet need"
Alek Safarian, Executive Chairman of Promatix
‍
Building on two decades of development, chiefly in the proteomics space, Promatix will combine its proprietary platform, TxPro, with third party public and private databases to create a powerful multi-omic engine to help Identify novel targets for rapid early development.

Promatix will continue to be incubated in the near term within the ALSA Group, which is providing seed funding to establish its first suite of targeted research projects. Dr Robert Balfour, Investment Director at ALSA, and acting CEO at Promatix emphasised the importance of building on Promatix’s academic links as a guiding principle of its mission.

"Both for known targets, as well as discovering new ones, TxPro has the potential to make a significant contribution to the wider body of knowledge. We are delighted to be working with world class advisors in this endeavour, and are looking forward to establishing a robust pipeline of drug candidates"
Dr Robert Balfour, CEO
‍
Scientific Advisory Board
Promatix’s advisors bring a wealth of knowledge across proteomics, oncology and computational biology.

Dr Jyoti Choudhary is head of the Proteomics Core Facility at the Institute of Cancer Research, UK. Her research focuses on the development and implementation of novel mass spectrometry and data analysis approaches for proteome discovery.

Professor Jasmin Fisher heads up The Fisher Lab at University College London. The Fisher Lab develops computational tools to study the evolution of cancer and the underlying mechanisms of cancer to identify personalised treatment for patients. Prior to joining UCL Jasmin was a Principal Researcher at Microsoft research in Cambridge, UK and an Associate Professor in Systems Biology at Cambridge University.

Dr Namshik Han is the Head of Computational Research Group at the University of Cambridge Milner Therapeutics Institute. The group develops and applies cutting edge computational methods such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify new therapies from the analysis of large multi-omic datasets. Prior to Cambridge, he was a post-doc in computational cancer genomics at the University of Manchester and worked in software development for Samsung Electronics.

On March 8, 2021 Female-founded tech companies in Ireland reported that it raised more than €100 million in funding last year for the first time (Press release, Shorla Pharma, MAR 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234578121]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

New figures published to coincide with International Women’s Day show 50 start-up and scaling companies with a female founder or co-founder secured €105 million through a mixture of venture capital, grants, equity finance and angel investments.

The achievement was particularly significant given that, globally, female founder funding fell 27 per cent last year versus 2019.

The 2020 figure marks a big increase in funding on the prior year when just €63 million was raised by female-founded tech companies. Female founders came close to hitting the €100 million milestone in 2018 when a combined €97.7 million was raised. However, €51 million of that year’s total came from just two deals.

John O’Dea, chief executive of TechIreland, which compiled the figures, described surpassing the €100 million mark as an important milestone.

International Women’s Day: No more excuses on gender and power
Reproductive leave should be introduced for miscarriage and IVF
Una Mullally: Fine Gael makes a clumsy grab for female voters
"Ireland is on par with the UK and is performing better than most EU countries in terms of funding for female tech businesses," he said.

Mr O’Dea noted, however, that female-founded tech companies are still underrepresented generally, accounting for just 10 per cent of the total funding secured last year. In addition, just 18 per cent of the tech companies that raised funding had a female founder.

Overall, while the average sum raised by Irish tech companies was €4.5 million last year, for female-founded ones, it was less than half that – at €2.1 million.

The largest round raised by a female founder in 2020 was Shirley O’Dea’s Avectas, which secured €18.5 million in funding. The cell engineering technology business, which was spun out of Maynooth University, was also behind the biggest round in 2019, when it secured €12 million in investment.

Other female-founded companies to secure investment last year included Silvercloud Health, MicroGen Biotech, Shorla Pharma, Soapbox Labs, Payslip, TriviumVet, Proverum Medical, VR Education and Vela Games.

Learn more
The increased in funding last year was driven largely by later-stage companies, the study shows.

Healthtech was by far and away the most popular sector for funding, with 17 female-founded companies in the space raising a combined €63.5 million. Enterprise Solutions was second with 16 companies securing €21.3 million, while agritech and edtech were also popular.

Martina Fitzgerald, chief executive of Scale Ireland, said "the record level of funding will encourage and inspire more women to pursue their ambitions and build their own tech companies. However, the overall picture is stark in terms of the total number of female founders and the level of funding they are receiving".

On March 8, 2021 Biosceptre reported the securing of £7m. (US$9.6m.) in funds to boost development of its nfP2X7-targeted CAR T program – a new generation of therapy with the potential to treat a broad range of haematologic and solid tumour malignancies (Press release, Biosceptre, MAR 8, 2021, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=biosceptre-secures-7m-to-boost-novel-car-t-therapy [SID1234577403]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

The funding, drawn from Norcliffe Capital in Europe and Jungle Capital in Australia, will help Biosceptre push it’s unique lead program towards clinical trials.

"We are really pleased by this fund raise as it reaffirms confidence in our ground-breaking nfP2X7-targeted therapies, and the drastic difference they could make to the lives of thousands of cancer patients, world-wide," explained said Mr Gavin Currie, CEO of Biosceptre.

"The funding will help propel our CAR T program through the optimisation and preclinical stage, towards manufacturing and potential first in-human studies."

"In parallel with our CAR T program we will further the development of our monoclonal antibody therapeutic program too."

nfP2X7 is a tumour-specific target, discovered by Biosceptre, that’s found on a wide range of cancers, both haematological and solid. Studies have shown that it retains critical signalling capabilities that support cancer cell survival and possesses novel epitopes that are available for antibody binding. Importantly, these aren’t detected at the surface of functional P2X7. Targeting cancer cells via these nfP2X7 epitopes offers great specificity – and forms the basis of Biosceptre’s technology.

Driven by Nobel prize-winning science leadership, Biosceptre’s innovative research and therapeutics are supported by ongoing collaborations with global experts and major research institutes, such as The University of Sydney, Universiy of Technology, Sydney and The Children’s Medical Research Institute

On March 8, 2021 Novo Nordisk reported that initiated a share repurchase programme in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and Council of 16 April 2014 (MAR) and the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 of 8 March 2016 (the "Safe Harbour Rules") (Press release, Novo Nordisk, MAR 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234577316]). This programme is part of the overall share repurchase programme of up to DKK 17 billion to be executed during a 12-month period beginning 3 February 2021.

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

Under the programme initiated 3 February 2021, Novo Nordisk will repurchase B shares for an amount up to DKK 3.0 billion in the period from 3 February 2021 to 3 May 2021.

Since the announcement as of 1 March 2021, the following transactions have been made:

Transactions related to Novo Nordisk’s incentive programmes have resulted in a net transfer from Novo Nordisk of 1,318 B shares in the period from 1 March 2021 to 5 March 2021. The shares in these transactions were not part of the Safe Harbour repurchase programme.

With the transactions stated above, Novo Nordisk owns a total of 41,456,629 B shares of DKK 0.20 as treasury shares, corresponding to 1.8% of the share capital. The total amount of A and B shares in the company is 2,350,000,000 including treasury shares.

Novo Nordisk expects to repurchase B shares for an amount up to DKK 17 billion during a 12- month period beginning 3 February 2021. As of 5 March 2021, Novo Nordisk has since 3 February 2021 repurchased a total of 2,554,017 B shares at an average share price of DKK 447.07 per B share equal to a transaction value of DKK 1,141,817,376.

On March 8, 2021 Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, reported that it will participate in a fireside chat during the H.C. Wainwright Virtual Global Life Sciences conference. Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, will be the topic of discussion (Press release, Novavax, MAR 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234576335]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

Fireside Chat details:
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Time: Available on-demand starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET)
Participants: Gregory M. Glenn, M.D., President, Research and Development and John Trizzino, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Business Officer
A replay of the recorded fireside session will be available through the events page of the Company’s website at ir.novavax.com for 90 days.