Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, announced that it has reached an agreement to sell its Resins & Functional Materials and associated businesses (together, “RFM”) to Covestro AG for an Equity Value of €1.6 billion.

The proposed transaction is another step forward in DSM’s evolution as a purpose-led, science-based company operating in the fields of Nutrition, Health, and Sustainable Living. It follows DSM’s recent acquisitions of the Erber Group (expected to close shortly), Glycom, and CSK.

The transaction will include all of DSM’s Resins & Functional Materials businesses, including DSM Niaga®, DSM Additive Manufacturing and the coatings activities of DSM Advanced Solar. These businesses represented €1,012 million of DSM’s 2019 total annual net sales and €133 million of DSM’s 2019 total EBITDA. DSM will provide re-stated figures for its Materials Cluster ahead of its Q3 results. DSM anticipates a book profit on the transaction to be recognized upon closing. DSM expects to receive approximately €1.4 billion net in cash following closing, including repayment of RFM’s net debt, and after transaction costs and capital gains tax.

The combination of RFM and Covestro will create a business of enhanced scale and technological capability that will benefit existing and potential customers as well as its employees through a stronger platform for growth. Completion of the transaction, which is subject to the customary conditions and approvals, is expected in H1, 2021.

Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze, Co-CEOs of Royal DSM, commented: “This sale builds on our approach of actively managing our businesses, as DSM continues to evolve as a purpose-led, science-based company operating in the fields of Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living. The deal delivers strong value to DSM and is strategically attractive for all parties. In Covestro, we recognize a company that shares similar views on culture and the value of sustainability. We know that Covestro will be a good owner of these businesses for customers, colleagues and other stakeholders.”

DSM Resins & Functional Materials, containing a Sustainable Coatings division and a Functional Materials division, provides highly-specialized, market-leading products such as resins for use in paints and other industrial applications, and optical fiber coatings. This includes DSM Niaga®, a VOC-free adhesive and a proprietary production technology for fully-recyclable carpets, mattresses and furniture components.

DSM Additive Manufacturing provides performance materials and deep application expertise in 3D-printing to help manufacturers rethink the way they design products to manufacture tomorrow. DSM Advanced Solar coatings are high performing anti-reflective coatings used for solar glass activities. The division’s activities in next-generation backsheets for photovoltaic modules remains as DSM Advanced Solar as part of DSM.

Source: DSM (Press release)

Maatschappelijk investeringsfonds INZET investeert in iClusion, een jonge onderneming die een innovatief internet platform aanbiedt om patiëntgebonden onderzoek naar nieuwe medicijnen beter toegankelijk te maken en te versnellen. De gezamenlijke investering van €2 miljoen door INZET en de huidige aandeelhouders stelt iClusion in staat om meer ziekenhuizen toegang te geven tot het internetplatform, meer studies met nieuwe medicijnen beschikbaar te maken, en te starten met de internationale uitbreiding van het platform.  

iClusion is opgericht vanuit het inzicht dat ernstig zieke patiënten nog te vaak buitenspel staan om aan onderzoek naar nieuwe behandelingen deel te kunnen nemen. Als eerste heeft iClusion, met de patiënt als vertrekpunt in het proces, een online platform ontwikkeld dat medicijnstudies naar de patiënt en arts toe brengt, in plaats van andersom. De patiënt en behandelend arts kunnen nu samen eenvoudig en snel geschikt onderzoek vinden en hieraan deelnemen. In eerste instantie richt iClusion zich op kankeronderzoek met de mogelijkheid om snel uit te breiden naar andere ernstige ziekten.  

Pieter Oostlander, founding partner INZET: “Wij zijn trots op de samenwerking met iClusion. Hun platform levert directe toegevoegde waarde voor patiënten, artsen en onderzoekers. Het past dan ook uitstekend bij de doelstellingen van ons maatschappelijk investeringsfonds.” 

Deelname aan onderzoek naar nieuwe behandelingen is niet eenvoudig vanwege de strenge wet- en regelgeving waaraan onderzoek met patiënten noodzakelijkerwijs gebonden is. Het Trial Eye platform vermindert de bureaucratie en vergroot de efficiëntie van patiëntgebonden onderzoek door gestandaardiseerde en geautomatiseerde processen. Dit stelt artsen en onderzoekers in staat om sneller studies te kunnen opstarten in hun ziekenhuis en meer patiënten te kunnen laten deelnemen. Deze procesverandering versnelt het ontwikkelingsproces van nieuwe geneesmiddelen en dat komt patiënten van vandaag en morgen ten goede. Deelname aan onderzoek vandaag versnelt de goedkeuring en toegankelijkheid van nieuwe medicijnen in de toekomst.    

KWF, deelnemend fonds van INZET – directeur Johan van de Gronden: “Ik ben blij met deze investering. Op deze manier kunnen meer patiënten makkelijker deelnemen aan klinische studies. Dit is zeer belangrijk in de strijd tegen kanker. Met INZET kunnen we nu op een verantwoorde wijze een commerciële ontwikkeling steunen die in het belang is van patiënten.” 

Bianca Schoonbeek, adjunct directeur van de Maag Lever Darm Stichting, deelnemend fonds van INZET: “Doordat MLD-patiënten dankzij iClusion snel en eenvoudig een beter beeld kunnen krijgen van extra behandelingsopties, ervaren zij meer grip op het ziekteproces. Dat juichen wij enorm toe”.  

Met deze investering  zal iClusion de positie  van  patiënten in onderzoek naar nieuwe behandelingen verder versterken. Binnenkort zal iClusion ook een publiek platform beschikbaar stellen waar patiënten met kanker en hun naasten direct toegang krijgen tot hetzelfde overzicht van lopend onderzoek als hun artsen. Door patiënten in begrijpelijke taal zelf toegang te geven tot extra behandelingsmogelijkheden kunnen zij zich goed voorbereiden op een gesprek met hun arts met als doel om meer patiënten aan onderzoek te kunnen laten deelnemen. 

Edwin Klumper, oprichter en voorzitter van de  board van iClusion: “INZET is de juiste investeerder op het juiste moment voor iClusion. INZET levert toegevoegde waarde door ruime ervaring in maatschappelijk ondernemen. Samen streven we naar een betere behandeling van kanker en andere ernstige ziekten door patiënten en artsen te helpen gemakkelijker aan onderzoek met nieuwe behandelingen te kunnen deelnemen.  Immers, onderzoek vandaag is de behandeling van morgen.” 

Bron: Persbericht

Roche is gambling on a new way of discovering drug targets and, ultimately, promising to infuse more than $375 million into a small biotech if all goes well. A spinout of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oxford University, Scenic Biotech set out to pioneer a field that’s gaining some traction among top VCs in the US: to harness the natural protecting powers of genetic modifiers — specific genes that suppress a disease phenotype.

After each getting a PhD from the prestigious Dutch research center and spending time in the Boston/Cambridge biotech hub, Thijn Brummelkamp and Sebastian Nijman built their functional genomics platform and named it Cell-Seq. The tech allows scientists to sift through all 20,000 genes in haploid cells (which have only one set of chromosomes), identify the genes that modify a given disease, and create a library of maps pinpointing them.

“There have been other modifiers discovered but these have mostly been discovered by serendipity,” Nijman, who’s also the CSO, told Endpoints News. “What we are now doing is doing this systematically.”

Oscar Izeboud, a former banker who was recruited to be CEO this July, put it this way: “It’s a very fast way to find a needle in a haystack.”

Once they find it, the strategy is to then find gene products — proteins — that can be targeted with small molecule drugs or antibodies. In most cases they would be enzymes, such as QPCTL, which Scenic believes is a druggable modifier of the CD47 checkpoint.

The other internal efforts have mainly focused on rare inherited metabolic disorders, where Nijman and Izeboud believe the 20-people-and-growing team can handle the clinical work.

Their new partners at Genentech are interested in an area that Scenic has not gone into. In addition to the undisclosed upfront, the deal covers target selection fees as well as milestones and royalties.

Scenic, though, isn’t the only startup claiming to have the necessary tools to unpack genetic modifiers — an idea that’s central to the mystifying notion that people born into the same family, with the same genes, don’t always have the same disease.

San Francisco-based Maze Therapeutics launched last year with $191 million from a syndicate led by ARCH and Third Rock, boasting a similar genetics platform designed to unearth new targets. Nessan Birmingham’s Triplet Therapeutics, meanwhile, is focused on the DNA level, leveraging antisense oligonucleotides to hit the DNA damage response pathway.

In comparison Scenic’s beginning was much more humble, raising €6.5 million from European firms BioGeneration Ventures and INKEF Capital, with some support from the university-affiliated Oxford Sciences Innovation and later the Dutch government.

But it’s not stopping Nijman from dreaming big.

Aside from the big Roche collaboration, he also has in his corner seasoned drug such as GSK vet Chas Bountra and cell therapy expert Ton Schumacher, who’s just embarked on his own new venture with Arie Belldegrun and David Chang. If anything, the buzz that rivals are generating is welcome.

“People are starting to realize and wake up to the fact that this is now possible,” Nijman said. “We can now go after this type of drug target.”

Source: EndpointsNews

LAVA Therapeutics, a biotech company pioneering the development of bispecific antibodies to engage gamma-delta T cells for cancer therapies, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed $83 million (€71 million) Series C financing to fund the advancement of its pipeline and platform. The financing was co-led by new investors Novo Ventures, the venture arm of Novo Holdings, and Sanofi Ventures, and included additional new investors Redmile Group, LLC, Ysios Capital and BB Pureos Bioventures. In addition, current investors Versant, Gilde Healthcare and MRL Ventures Fund, LLC participated significantly in the round.

As part of the transaction, Nanna Lüneborg, partner at Novo Ventures, Laia Crespo, EU head of investments at Sanofi Ventures, and Joël Jean-Mairet, managing partner and co-founder of Ysios, joined LAVA as members of the board of directors.

“We are grateful to have attracted a high-quality syndicate of new investors complementing strong continued support of our existing investors. This financing provides meaningful capital to advance our bispecific gamma-delta T cell engager portfolio into multiple proof-of-concept clinical trials expected to start in 2021 for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies,” said Stephen Hurly, chief executive officer of LAVA Therapeutics. “We believe our targeted approach, leveraging the unique features of gamma9-delta2 T cells with innovative bispecific antibodies, will deliver novel T cell-based therapies offering advantages over today’s oncology treatments. In addition to the funding raised, the appointments of Nanna, Laia and Joël to our board further strengthen our team, and we look forward to benefiting from their insights and industry expertise.”

Gamma-delta T cells are the natural surveillance cells of the immune system, continuously patrolling the human body for the identification and targeting of tumor cells. These cells bridge the innate with the adaptive immune system and are a largely untapped opportunity in cancer treatment. LAVA’s bispecific gamma-delta T cell engager platform is harnessing the unique properties of these T cells creating a revolutionary truly tumor-targeted immunotherapy to improve outcomes for cancer patients.

“LAVA’s bispecific antibody approach to targeting and engaging gamma-delta T cells has the potential to transform the treatment of a wide range of cancers,” said Dr. Lüneborg. “We are impressed by the preclinical data generated by LAVA to date, which validate the company’s platform and support their transition into a clinical-stage organization. The team is highly experienced in drug development, and I look forward to working with them.”

“Gamma-delta T cells are an emerging field and an incredibly exciting area in oncology. Bispecific antibodies able to directly engage this type of cells offer the potential to significantly impact patients across the globe in these diseases with high morbidity and mortality,” said Dr. Crespo

Source: Lava Therapeutics (Press release)