Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly EuroBiotech Report. We start this week in the U.K., where the government published details of how it expects Brexit to affect drug developers. The missives talked up the prospect of negotiators agreeing to maintain something like the status quo continuing for the next few years, and said little about what will happen if talks break down. Elsewhere, the companies that will be affected by the changes continued to get on with business. Boehringer Ingelheim secured an option on a cystic fibrosis gene therapy. Therachon raised $60 million to run rare disease clinical trials. Cellectis poached an executive from Novartis. AI startup Sensyne Health filed to go public. And more.—Nick Taylor
1. U.K. commits to adopt EU trial regulation, minimize divergence after Brexit
The U.K. regulatory agency has detailed how it expects Brexit to affect its clinical trial regulations. Officials reiterated their intent for the U.K. to implement the incoming European Union Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR) and expanded on the long-term effects of Brexit on research approval processes.
2. Boehringer Ingelheim lands option on cystic fibrosis gene therapy
Boehringer Ingelheim has secured the option to license a cystic fibrosis gene therapy. The agreement will see Boehringer work with British academics and Oxford BioMedica (OXB) to develop an inhaled, lentiviral vector-based gene therapy treatment for cystic fibrosis.
3. Novo powers rare disease startup Therachon to $60M round
Therachon has raised $60 million (€52 million) to take a phase 1 rare disease drug deeper into the clinic. The Novo Holdings-led mezzanine round comes six months after Therachon began testing its FGFR3 ligand trap in healthy volunteers.
4. CAR-T player Cellectis poaches Stefan Scherer from Novartis
Cellectis has named Stefan Scherer, M.D., Ph.D., as its SVP of clinical development. Scherer joins the off-the-shelf CAR-T pioneer from Novartis, where he headed up U.S. oncology early development and strategy.
5. AI data miner Sensyne Health looks to go public with $77M listing
Digital health company Sensyne Health announced plans to go public with a £60 million listing ($77 million) on the alternative investment market of the London Stock Exchange on Aug. 17.