FarmaKology Newsletter - Issue #47

Jun 3, 2020

Today's Startup

EQRx

EQRx is committed to making innovative medicines at dramatically lower prices for the benefit of people and society. By bringing together stakeholders from across the healthcare system and utilizing the latest advances in science and technology, the company seeks to discover, develop and deliver high-quality, patent-protected medicines more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before.

News

GHO Capital acquires X-Chem, a leading drug discovery service provider

Global Healthcare Opportunities, the European specialist investor in healthcare, announces the acquisition of X-Chem, Inc., the industry-leading provider of DNA-Encoded Library (DEL)-based discovery services, from an affiliate of The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman LLC.From its Waltham, US headquarters and leveraging a proprietary DEL platform with libraries containing over 200 billion small molecules, X-Chem provides drug discovery services to biopharma partners. X-Chem has licensed over seventy research programs, comprising hundreds of novel chemical entities, to companies throughout the US, Europe and Japan.

Cyprotex awarded new 5 year agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA")

Evotec SE today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Cyprotex US, LLC has been awarded a new 5 year contract with the US Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). The project forms part of the EPA’s Computational Toxicology and Exposure Research efforts (“CompTox”) whose goal is to provide solutions-driven research to rapidly evaluate the potential human health and environmental risks due to exposures to environmental chemicals.

UK, ArtemiLife Partner to Test for Anti-Cancer Activity of Artemisia Annua Extracts

The University of Kentucky and ArtemiLife Inc. will collaborate on a clinical study using the extract of a medicinal plant grown in Kentucky to test for anti-cancer activity of Artemisia annua and to determine the recommended dose of Artemisia annua for future clinical trials.The clinical study, conducted by the UK Markey Cancer Center, will focus on women with ovarian cancer. The study will assess the biomarker influence and kinetics of Artemisia annua extract utilizing ArtemiLife’s tea and coffee products.

CordenPharma signs deal to work on COVID vaccine

CordenPharma Boulder Inc., a contract-development and manufacturing organization, has extended an agreement with Moderna Inc. to produce lipid excipients to be used in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19.Lipid excipients are mechanisms used to release a drug. The material surrounds the drug and enables it to get into the human cell.Moderna is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass., that is working to develop messenger RNA therapies and vaccines, including vaccine candidate mRNA-1273, which will be used against the novel coronavirus. Its candidate is in phase two clinical trials and is a leading vaccine to be used to combat COVID-19.