SantoSolve AS raises USD 5.5 million   

Tuesday, October 20 2009 

Norwegian pharmaceutical/biotech company SantoSolve AS has raised USD 5.5 million in a private placement with Scandinavian VCs Teknoinvest, InnovationsKapital and Investinor.

(SantoSolve's homepage)

For more about Investinor's investment in SantoSolve click here (Norwegian only).

Affitech Appoints Dr Robert Burns as CEO and Dr Alexander Duncan as SVP Research & Development

Experienced biopharmaceutical executives form new leadership team of antibody medicines company 
 

Copenhagen, Denmark, 1 September 2009 

Affitech A/S, the antibody medicines company, today announced that it has appointed two experienced biotech executives to head its management team.  Dr Robert Burns, previously CEO of Celldex Therapeutics Inc., has today assumed overall responsibility for Affitech as its new Chief Executive Officer.  Dr Alexander Duncan, previously SVP Biopharmaceuticals for Astra Zeneca – Medimmune, also joins Affitech today as Senior Vice President of Research and Development.   Dr Robert Burns takes over the Affitech CEO role from Dr Achim Kaufhold who, having successfully completed the recent combination of Affitech and Pharmexa, is leaving the Company.

(Affitech's homepage)

For the whole press release click here.

GLO AB CLOSES SEK 82M SERIES B INVESTMENT ROUND

Lund, Oslo & Stockholm  – ( September 2, 2009) -- Lund (Sweden) based nanowire semiconductor LED developer GLO AB today announced the closing of an SEK 82 million Series B investment round (approximately USD 11.6 million).

Dr. Bo Pedersen, GLO’s chief executive officer, said, “We are delighted to welcome as new investors both Hafslund Venture AS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hafslund ASA, and Agder Energi Venture AS, a unit of Agder Energi AS.”  Both Hafslund and Agder are major power generation companies in the Nordic region, and both have substantial, successful investment track-records with a renewable energy focus.  Hafslund Venture, for example, made its first investment in Renewable Energy Corporation in 1998, and is today the second largest shareholder in a company that has become one of the leading PV Solar companies in the world.

Current investors joining in the round in GLO include funds advised by venture capital firms Provider Venture Partners of Stockholm, Teknoinvest and Nano Future Invest of Oslo, joined by LU Innovation together with LUAB, the investment arm of Lund University (Sweden), as major owners, along with the founders and employees of GLO. 

For the whole press release click here.

Santaris Pharma A/S forms strategic alliance with Shire plc to develop RNA-based medicines for the treatment of rare genetic disorders 

• Santaris Pharma A/S and Shire plc to engage in a multi-year research program utilizing Santaris Pharma’s proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform to identify and select drug candidates against certain targets for the treatment of rare genetic disorders
   
• Santaris Pharma A/S to receive significant upfront payments, milestone payments and royalties  for providing access to its LNA technology, exclusivity for three pre-defined targets and funding for discovery 
  
• Partnership for the treatment of rare genetic disorders further demonstrates versatility of the LNA Drug Platform to develop RNA-based medicines for a range of disease areas including metabolic disorders, cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases 

Hoersholm, Denmark, August 24, 2009

Santaris Pharma A/S, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing RNA-based drugs targeted to disease-related mRNAs and microRNAs, today announced a multi-year worldwide strategic alliance with Shire plc to discover and develop new RNA-based medicines to treat rare genetic disorders. 

The alliance will use Santaris Pharma A/S’ proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform to identify and select drug candidates against certain targets.  Shire will be responsible for the selection of appropriate drug candidates, as well as further development and commercialization of products arising from the alliance. 

Under the terms of the agreement Santaris Pharma A/S will receive initial early stage payments of $6.5 million covering technology access, exclusivity for three pre-defined targets and initial discovery funding, and an additional early stage payment of $13.5 million upon successful completion of certain initial studies. The initial term of the research collaboration is two years; Shire has an option to extend for up to two additional years.  

Article in FierceBiotech click here.

Article in Business.dk click here (Danish only).