> 
ReNeuron pocketed £68.4 million ($106.2 million) from Neil Woodford and other investors to fund development of its pipeline of cell therapies. Woodford snapped up almost half of the shares put on sale by ReNeuron, swelling his stake in the company to north of 35% in the process. The money will see ReNeuron through to 2019, by when it expects to have filed marketing authorization for its stroke and retinitis pigmentosa programs. FierceBiotech
> Genmab (CPH:GEN) snagged a $15 million (€14 million) milestone payment from Janssen Biotech. The Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) subsidiary handed over the cash after wrapping up the rolling FDA submission for daratumumab, the human IgG1k monoclonal antibody against multiple myeloma it is developing with the Danish biopharma. Genmab is in line to receive a further $45 million when the drug first racks up a commercial sale. Release
> Immunocore pulled off a massive $320 million (€295 million) fundraising round. The deal catapulted the Oxford-based biotech to the forefront of the conversation about T cell receptors, while also showing that the U.K. is now equipped to finance local players with previously unimaginable sums of money. A glance at the list of investors shows what has changed for British biotechs over the past year, with Neil Woodford's Oxford-based fund and Kelly Martin's Malin from neighboring Ireland both featuring. FierceBiotech
> Adocia (EPA:ADOC) opened another front in its campaign to capture a slice of the insulin market. The latest move involves BioChaperone Combo, a mix of Sanofi's ($SNY) Lantus and Eli Lilly's ($LLY) Humalog. Adocia is to test the combination in a pair of Phase Ib trials, one of which will compare its product to HumalogMix in patients with Type 1 diabetes. The second trial will look at BioChaperone Combo in patients with Type 2 diabetes. Release
> TC BioPharm scooped £1.2 million ($1.8 million) in equity and grant funding to advance its immuno-oncology program into the clinic. The Scottish biotech is investigating the use of γδ T-lymphocytes to treat melanoma, lung and kidney cancer. TC BioPharm initially plans to run dose escalation tests on the autologous therapy, after which it will evaluate efficacy in the three indications before focusing in on the most promising. Release (PDF)
> Ferrer pushed its insomnia asset into Phase IIa. The trial is assessing the safety and efficacy of the long-acting GABAa receptor modulator in comparison to a placebo and zolpidem--the drug sold by Sanofi ($SNY) as Ambien--in adults. Barcelona, Spain-based Ferrer is aiming to enrol 130 patients into the study in Germany, Poland and Croatia. Data are expected around the fourth quarter of 2016. Release
> The Francis Crick Institute signed up GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) as its first biopharma partner. GSK will work with the new research center--which is set to start operations next year--on up to 15 programs to understand the underlying biology of HIV, malaria, cancer and other diseases. GSK is contributing staff and access to its compound library to the collaboration. The institute expects alliances with other companies, large and small, to follow. "We aim to have industrial scientists embedded in our laboratories and fully integrated with our scientific groups," Crick COO David Roblin told The Financial Times. FierceBiotech | FT