Sources well briefed in the matter say there is a Tory leadership contest going on. The candidate that most likely will not be elected has promised to relax planning laws for life sciences facilities and labs. We do not know much in regards to science matters from the other contender. Thankfully, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced a budget increase to more than £1 billion for Innovate UK, and agritech startups will receive £16.5 million in government funding as part of the Farming Innovation Program. Talking about leadership contests, if the battle for Sting agonists is preventing you from sleeping, relax, in a Sting-scale, we are still at Phil Collins level: gloomy and a little spineless. The Interesting readings section features a good overview about this topic. Antibodies constitute a $145 billion annual market but current patent system to describe molecular complexity, friends, is not helping. Jacob S. Sherkow elaborates on that. Much more exciting news come from new venture Sevenless Therapeutics, as they secure €1.3 million funding from the BioInnovation Institute. The 4th edition of the Trinity Bradfield Prize is now accepting applications and eg Technology is inviting startups to apply for complimentary engineering time to make its 20th anniversary. Liz McKee Anderson has been appointed Independent Non-Executive Director at GSK and, now that we are at it, we can have a look to who else is there from September 1, 2022. Last, if you make it to the Beyond Biotech section, unblock your volume control option, this week is time for Radiohead. And the Michael Hoppen Gallery. Let’s dive in!

p.s. Some of you have reach out asking for previous editions of the newsletter. Cambridge Biocapital is sent out to subscribers every Friday and is available on the website next Monday. However, email clients such Gmail, Outlook, etc. send newsletters almost-by-default to Promotions folder (or Junk!). If you save this email address, it will not happen and you should see it in your main inbox. Let’s help the algorithm so we can predict complex protein structures AND classify emails properly.

Sevenless Therapeutics has secured €1.3 million risk-free convertible loan from the Copenhagen-based BioInnovation Institute (BII). Sevenless Therapeutics a preclinical stage small molecule biotech currently operating in semi-stealth mode. The startup was founded in December 2020 by Dr Alasdair Naylor, an expert in CNS pharmacology, pain and inflammation biology with 30 years experience in drug discover (ex-Pfizer Global R&D, ex-Solace Pharmaceuticals); Dr Neil Benson, who has over 25 years of experience (ex-GSK, ex-Pfizer, Translational PKPD lead and Head of Systems Pharmacology; ex-Head of Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QPS) operations at Certara); and Dr Olivia Cavlan, MD as Non-Executive Director (current Chief Corporate Development & Strategy Officer at Alchemab and member of the Investment Committee for Cancer Research UK’s (CRUK) Seed fund, ex-SV Health Investors, ex-McKinsey), with Alex Leech joining as Chair of the Board. Sevenless Therapeutics focuses on the chronic pain space, which currently suffers from inadequate treatments. The company has discovered a novel target in pain signalling using state-of-the-art mathematical methodology. No further details have been disclosed. The BII has already supported 62 start-ups with over €50 million in funding, which have raised a total 207 million in investing. Recent BII-backed companies success stories include Adcendo, Stipe Therapeutics, Twelve Bio, Octarine Bio, and Cirqle Biomedical.

PeakData has raised £10 million series A. The funding round was led by AlbionVCand participated by Octopus Ventures and Head Capital. PeakData was founded in 2018 by Patrick de Boar and Michael Feldman and aims to enable pharmaceutical companies to improve their customer base by enabling them to learn more about the healthcare professionals (HPCs) that will deliver the treatments to the patients. This allows patients to benefit sooner from new medicines. The company has developed an AI platform that identifies, collates and ranks HPCs in terms of impact, influence and relevance to their target market. The platform also identifies emerging HPCs among local treating physicians. The platform is now used by over half of the Europe’s largest pharmaceutical companies. The proceedings of the round will be used to expand all aspects of the business and support growth plans.

Cambridge-based SolasCure has raised £15 million Series A. The funding round was led by RAIN Biotech AG, SolasCure’s largest shareholder, and participated by Seneca Partners, Bionova Capital, Jonathan Milner (Abcamfounder), EVA Pharma, the Development Bank of Wales, and François Fournier (ex-lead of Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Wound Care division). It is estimated the UK spends over £3 billion per year on treating chronic wounds. SolasCure has developed proprietary technology leveraging biomimicry. The proceedings of the round will be used to support the development of its lead wound cleaning product, Aurase, a hydrogel containing an enzyme cloned from medical maggot.

Agritech startups will receive £16.5 million in government funding as part of the Farming Innovation Program run in collaboration with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). £5.5 million will be deployed into feasibility projects, with grants ranging from £200,000 to £500,000 for research and development. The remaining £11m will be allocated for winners of the Small R&D Partnership competition, who will receive £1 to £3 million for projects addressing sustainability and productivity.

The non-departmental government body UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced a budget increase to more than £1 billion for Innovate UK by 2024, a 50% increment from its previous budget of £667 million. As part of the Levelling UP Agenda, the budget also plans to promote accelerators in Great Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow. In addition, £2 billion will be made available to bridge the digital skills gap in British tech industry. UKRI was established in 2018 and is sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It has 9 divisions, each providing funding for a specific sector, Innovate UK, being the one for the biotech sector. The full UKRI corporate plan can be access here.

The fourth edition of the Trinity Bradfield Prize is now accepting applications. The award includes no-string attached grants, support programmes, mentorship, and membership at The Bradfield Centre. Eligibility requires at least one of the applicants being student at the University of Cambridge or non-independent early career researcher, and solo applicants are also encouraged to apply. Previous edition attracted 289 applications.

Catherine Gokah has joined Kirkland & Ellis as Partner in the Investment Funds Group in the London office. Ms. Gokah joins from being Partner at Ashurst LLP and has extensive experience advising fund sponsors. Kirkland (Europe) has over 25 partners and advises preeminent investment fund sponsors (fundraisings, liquidity solutions, sponsor strategic transactions, etc.)

Nottingham-based Source BioScience has expanded its North American operations with a new facility in San Diego. The expansion offers stability storage solutions for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life science organisations. Currently, Source BioScience operates in UK, Europe and US offering clinical diagnostics, sequencing and bioinformatics services and stability storage for the healthcare industry.

Bruntwood SciTech has announced plans to develop a 100,000 sq ft working space for science and tech in Glasgow. The £30 million new development will be build as net-zero carbon building. This is the second property Bruntwood SciTech will be managing, after the company acquired the 14-story Met Tower for £16.2 million. The real state company recently unveiled a £20m lab redevelopment at Alderley Park(Macclesfield). According to CBRE, Glasgow is the third tech hub outside London, only behind Manchester and Birmingham.

More on space to do your PCRs: the Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) in partnership with XLB Propertyhave secured consent to develop 90,411 sq ft R& D units in Cambridge Research Park. The scheme comprises 11 units from 4,700 sq ft to 13,900 sq ft and is targeting the BREEAM Excellent rating and highest ESG credentials. PRC Architecture designed the scheme with Savills, Bidwells and Cheffins as appointed agents. The new space is expected to be delivered in Q4 2023.

Cambridge-based eg Technology is inviting startups to apply for engineering time to make its 20th anniversary. Companies in the medtech, biotech, cleantech, vetcare or agritech are welcome to apply for 2 to 5 days worth of complimentary engineering time. The deadline for the applications is September 15, 2022.

University of Oxford spinout Oxitec is expanding its global headquarters at Milton Park. Oxitec has taken additional space at the 37D Innovation Drive, doubling its premises to a total of nearly 26,000 sq ft. Oxitec is developing biological insect control technology, aiming to safely and sustainalbly targeting disease-transmitting or crop-damaging populations.

Qureight has announced its Scientific Board of Directors for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). IPF is one of the company’s three benchmark conditions alongside Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Its proprietary platform has recently been used as a surrogate clinical trial endpoint by analysing and structuring complex data from a Phase 2 IPF study. The new appointments to the Board are: Dr Bill Bradford (independent consultant; ex-CMO and co-founder of Indalo Therapeutics), Dr Paul Ford (pharmaceutical discovery clinician specialised in Respiratory Medicine, ex-Galapagos, ex-PureTech), Prof Toby Maher (Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of ILD at Keck School of Medicine and former director for the ILD unit at Royal Brompton Hospital, London), Prof Phil Molyneaux (Asthma and Lung UK Chair of Respiratory Research and director of the NIHR Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility at the Royal Brompton Hospital), and Dr Melissa Wickremasinghe (founder of the Lung Fibrosis and Sarcoidosis service at St Mary’s Hospital, and experience clinical trialists).

AviadoBio has appointed Daniel Ring as Vice President (VP) of Business Development and Licensing. Mr Ring joins from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he was Executive Director. Previously, he was VP of Business Development and Strategic Planning at Soligenix and Exela Pharma Sciences.

InnovateUK has appointed Joanna Edgar as Head of Lending and Investment Operations. Ms Edgar has been promoted from the Lending Operations division where she was Manager and Analyst. Previously, she was consultant at the Nationwide Building Society.

GSK (LSE/NYSE: GSK) has appointed Elizabeth (Liz) McKee Anderson as Independent Non-Executive Director. Anderson previously was Global Vice President (VP) and Commercial Leader for Infections Diseases and Vaccines division at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and VP and General Manager at Wyeth Vaccines. She is currently board member for BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, Revolution Medicines, Insmed and Aro Biotherapeutics Company. As of September 1, 2022, GSK board will be comprised by Emma Walmsey (CEO), Iain Mackay (CFO), Charles Bancroft (Senior Independent Non-Executive Director), Elisabeth McKee Anderson (Independent Non-Executive Director), Dr Hal Barron (Non-Executive Director), Dr Anne Beal(Independent Non-Executive Director), Dr Hal Dietz (Independent Non-Executive Director), Dr Jesse Goodman (Independent Non-Executive Director), Dr Laurie Glimcher (Independent Non-Executive Director), Urs Rohner (Independent Non-Executive Director), and Dr Vishal Sikka (Independent Non-Executive Director).

Northwest Biotherapeutics (OTCQB: NWBO) has obtain approval of Paediatric Investigation Plan (PIP) from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for its DCVax-L drug candidate. Under the British law, new medicines developed for adult patients must also be tested for potential application to paediatric patients, thus obtaining PIP is a pre-requisite for applying for approval in adult patients. This PIP currently includes two Northwest’s clinical trials, one for newly diagnosed paediatric high grade glioma (HGG) and another for recurrent paediatric HGG. In each of these, 24 patients will be treated with DCVax-L on the same treatment schedule as in Phase III trial in adult glioblastoma patients. The primary endpoint will be overall survival. The final PIP approval must be obtained before submitting the Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for approval to commercialise the new medicine for adult patients.

AstraZeneca has been granted approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) for three different drugs. Lynparza (olaparib) has been approved for the adjuvant treatment of patients with BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence. Tagrisso (osimertinib) has been approved for the adjuvant treatment of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer after surgery. Last, Ultomiris (ravulizumab) has been approved for the treatment of adults with generalised myasthenia gravis who are being dosed with anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive and whose symptoms are difficult to control with high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin therapy.

Friends, there is yet another problem with patents, specifically with antibody patents. Antibodies constitute a $145 billion annual market, which is projected to double by 2026. However, these patents are in a difficult situation. A recent shift by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit aimed to strengthening two areas of patent law (enablement and written description) which are currently unable to deal with the current molecular complexity of antibodies. If this worries you or, even better, entertains you, read Jacob S. Sherkow on the matter.

The Sting is dead; long live the Sting. When talking about Sting agonists, the clinical-stage battle is fairly debated. Evaluate has written a good overview on the matter.

Unite.ai has interviewed Andrew Watson, Vice President of AI and R&D a Healx on how does it feel changing from the technology giant Dyson to cutting-edge biomedical research.

Sources well briefed in the matter say there is a Tory leadership contest going on. This article outlines some of the debate about Rishi Sunak’s promise to relax planning laws for life sciences facilities and labs.