EuroBiotech: More Articles of Note

> A pair of European biotechs pulled off IPOs. Asit Biotech (EBR:ASIT) listed on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris, raising €23.5 million ($26.8 million) to invest in its pipeline of allergy immunotherapies in the process. In Stockholm, Sweden, Wilson Therapeutics persuaded investors to back an IPO that could bring in SEK 480 million ($59 million) if the overallotment is taken up. Wilson is developing a treatment for the rare disease from which it takes its name, a condition that causes copper poisoning. Asit | Wilson

> Galapagos ($GLPG) began a Phase I trial of another component of its burgeoning portfolio of cystic fibrosis drugs. The drug, the second potentiator Galapagos has moved into the clinic, is being given to healthy volunteers at a range of doses in a placebo-controlled clinical trial. AbbVie ($ABBV), Galapagos’ partner in cystic fibrosis, has handed over a $10 million milestone payment in relation to the start of the study. Under the recently revised terms of the relationship, Galapagos is in line to receive much more in milestones over the next few years. Statement

> Alizé Pharma II accepted a buyout bid from Jazz Pharmaceuticals ($JAZZ). Jazz is paying €8 million upfront and committing to a further €10 million in milestones to acquire the assets, which it already had a claim to through its 2012 acquisition of Alizé partner EUSA Pharma. The licensed assets, which include Phase II/III in acute lymphoblastic leukemia candidate Asparec, will now become part of Jazz. No employees will be transferred in the deal. The Alizé Pharma Group will continue to operate following the deal through its original Prader-Willi-focused company and more recently founded Alizé Pharma III unit. Release

> AC Immune raised CHF 42.7 million. The Series E round brought the total raised by AC Immune to date past the CHF 100 million mark, a sum it has put into the advance of a pipeline of Alzheimer’s disease drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. By BioWorld’s count, the round also moved the European biotech private equity sector as a whole beyond a milestone. The fundraising tally for 2016 now stands at $725 million, almost double the amount BioWorld had counted as of this time last year. FierceBiotech | BioWorld

> MGB Biopharma began working to obtain the status of Qualified Infectious Disease Product for its antibiotic MGB-BP-3. The British biotech initiated the process following a pre-IND meeting with the FDA, at which the company presented the clinical and preclinical data it has generated to date. MGB is using the data as the basis for a Phase II trial designed to assess the safety and efficacy of MGB-BP-3 in patients with Clostridium difficile infections. Business development activities are happening in parallel. “We are now evaluating partnering and funding sources,” MGB CEO Miroslav Ravic said in a statement. Release

> Boehringer Ingelheim picked up the right to license a schizophrenia compound from a discovery and development program at the Lead Discovery Center (LDC). A team at LDC is working with Moritz Rossner from the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine to use his research as the basis for the discovery of a novel compound that demonstrates in vivo efficacy. Once the program has reached preclinical proof-of-concept, Boehringer can license the lead compound under predefined terms. Release