Evotec Acquires Just Biotherapeutics

Paris, France

Sanofi SA - Infectious diseases are caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites and can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another. Treatments for infectious diseases include antibiotics and anti-viral medications. Today, infectious diseases propagated by bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to many antibiotics and any use of antibiotics reduces the effectiveness of these drugs for other patients. The World Health Organization (“WHO”) has deemed antibiotic resistance to be one of the three greatest threats to human health today. Almost a million people die of resistant infections a year. It is also estimated that by 2050, 10 million lives a year and a cumulative 100 trillion dollars of economic output are at risk due to the rise of drug resistant infections, if solutions to this problem are not identified now. Thus, there is a critical need to research and develop medical solutions to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Oxford, United Kingdom

OxVax is a new immuno-oncology company based on research from Oxford University, which enables the development of the next generation of cancer vaccines with the potential to overcome the limitations of the current approaches. OxVax is developing an innovative cancer vaccine platform based on a unique and proprietary population of dendritic cells capable of inducing a potent anti-tumour immune response. The company's technology allows the bulk manufacture of these cells from donor blood derived stem cells. By ex vivo loading of these cells with tumour antigens, OxVax will be able to create a vaccine which can train the body to target and eliminate tumours.