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Company secures additional financing to advance clinical programmes in Immuno-Oncology and Inflammatory bowel disease through to data readout

Mestag was awarded a “Transforming Cancer Therapeutics” grant of £1.5/$1.9 million from Innovate UK to accelerate MST-0300, which is designed to induce tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) in solid tumors, as an exciting and novel therapeutic approach.

Collaborative Project to Develop Next-Generation Cell Platform for Viral Vector Production Receives £1.1 Million Grant from Innovate UK & NRC

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, a world-leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biologics, vaccines, advanced therapies, and oncolytic viruses, today hosted a celebration for the opening of its microbial fermentation manufacturing facility in Billingham.

Cancer Research Horizons, the innovation arm of Cancer Research UK, has appointed Carlos Garcia-Echeverria, Katharina Kreymborg and Karen Lackey as the first members of its Therapeutic Innovation board to steer its drug discovery strategy.

Moa Technology has announced excellent results in multi-country field trials of promising new classes of herbicide with novel modes of action recently discovered by the company. Weeds pose a serious and increasing threat to food security around the world. With over 270 species of weeds now resistant to existing commercial herbicides, and no new broad-spectrum herbicides brought to market in the last forty years, farmers globally are running out of tools to protect their harvests. Spun out of Oxford University in 2017, Moa has developed proprietary technology to discover a whole new generation of synthetic and bio-herbicidal compounds based on novel modes of action, to provide farmers with safe, cost-effective, technologically-advanced solutions at a pace weeds cannot match. In the last three years, Moa’s platform has already screened over 750,000 compounds and discovered over 70 promising novel modes of action areas. In July 2024, Moa signed a major partnership with Nufarm to co-develop and commercialise one of these new chemical series.

Availability in the Norwich office market fell again last year and prime rents rose. We believe that prime yields at 10.5% provide an attractive entry point for investors looking to deploy capital. Office take-up in Norwich in the first half of 2024 was in line with the long-term average. While financial and business services companies were relatively quiet, the gap was filled by occupiers in education, healthcare and off-shore wind. The limited amount of Grade A space and lack of new development is putting upward pressure on prime rents and we expect them to increase by 5% p.a. between mid-2024 and end-2029. Prime office yields in Norwich at 11% provide an attractive entry point for investors looking to deploy capital.

Milton Keynes' central location within the Arc and relative affordability make it an attractive base and the inflow of new companies into the city has offset the impact of downsizing by existing occupiers. Office take-up in the first half of 2024 was in line with the pre-pandemic average and the lack of new development means that availability is under control at 11.5%. Prime office rents are likely to hold steady this year, before seeing renewed growth in 2025.

The convergence between science and tech is increasingly evident in the Cambridge market with tech companies responsible for two-thirds of office take up in H1. Overall, 90% of office and lab lettings were by companies operating in the knowledge intensive sectors. The lab market remains cautious, but requirements for smaller floorplate space increased in H1, while several previously stalled, significantly larger transactions are now making progress. This will drive take up over the next couple of years as the high quality development schemes across the market come forward.

eXmoor’s Cell & Gene Therapy Centre can now offer a full range of GMP services for cell and gene therapies including manufacture, fill/finish, packaging, labelling, and shipping to global clinical sites

London BioScience Innovation Centre (LBIC) is delighted to announce that it has entered into an Agreement for Lease with Baseimmune Ltd.

This week’s update pays tribute to UK biotech's driving force Dave Chiswell, previews a packed autumn events calendar, and highlights exciting new initiatives.

Following on from our roundtable in April of this year, Amrita Saha (left) and Anabel Marin (right) from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) have written a blog discuss the lessons to be learnt from the UK's Covid-19 Vaccine Response. ​

This special summer newscast brings you up to date with the new UK government's engagement with life sciences, snapshots latest financing figures and showcases new BIA capacity through our new online presence.

The BIA today announces the best quarter for investment since the pandemic.