Glob­al syn­di­cate backs Prokar­i­um's $10M round; Bavar­i­an Nordic to test can­cer vac­cine with Imfinzi; AI start­up buys drug de­vel­op­ment fa­cil­i­ty

→ The UK syn­thet­ic bi­ol­o­gy play­er Prokar­i­um has raised $10 mil­lion from a glob­al syn­di­cate of in­vestors to back its work on oral vac­cines. The mon­ey came from the Riyadh Val­ley Com­pa­ny, the ven­ture cap­i­tal arm of King Saud Uni­ver­si­ty, as well as Swe­den’s Flerie In­vest and Ko­rea In­vest­ment Part­ners, South Ko­rea’s largest ven­ture cap­i­tal firm.

→ Bavar­i­an Nordic (OMX: $BA­VA) is adding Imfinzi to the list of check­point in­hibitors it plans to test in com­bi­na­tion with CV-301, in the af­ter­math of a sep­a­rate prostate can­cer vac­cine flop last Sep­tem­ber. In ad­di­tion to sup­ply­ing the PD-L1 drug, As­traZeneca will pro­vide fi­nan­cial sup­port for the Phase I/II com­bo study, to be led by George­town Uni­ver­si­ty. The tri­al will fo­cus on pa­tients with metasta­t­ic col­orec­tal or pan­cre­at­ic can­cers. Pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival will be the pri­ma­ry end­point, while sec­ondary end­points in­clude ob­jec­tive re­sponse rate, over­all sur­vival and dis­ease con­trol rate. The Dan­ish biotech is al­so in­ves­ti­gat­ing CV-301 with Mer­ck’s Keytru­da in non-small cell lung can­cer and Roche’s Tecen­triq in blad­der can­cer.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER