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Eywa Pharma Pte Ltd. (“Eywa” or “company”), a Singapore-based generic pharmaceutical company has today announced that Eight Roads Ventures India (the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited) , US-based F-Prime Capital Partners and Envestor Ventures Limited together with its affiliates (part of the Shriram Group, Chennai, India), have agreed to invest $30M in the company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Eywa was incorporated in 2015 with a vision to provide reliable and affordable generic pharmaceuticals for patients globally. The company has established subsidiaries in India, the US and the UK, and is currently building a portfolio of niche generic products for the US, UK and European markets. It has also established a state-of-the-art R&D centre in Chennai for development of finished dosage forms.

The company has been founded by S. Srinivasan and R. Jayakumar, both senior pharmaceutical executives with over two decades of international experience. Srinivasan was formerly the India CEO for the global pharmaceuticals major Mylan and held various senior roles with Mylan including being the Head of Global Emerging Markets. Before founding Eywa, Srinivasan was the Managing Director of Shriram Venture Limited, the holding entity for the various industrial businesses of the Chennai-based Shriram Group. Jayakumar served with Mylan across various international roles, including as Head of Global Business Development and Head of Regional Technical Operations for EMEA.

As part of the investment, Dr. Prem Pavoor, Partner at Eight Roads Ventures and Dr. Ketan Patel, Partner at F-Prime Capital Partners will join the board at Eywa. In addition, Mr. H.R. Srinivasan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, TAKE Solutions Limited and Mr. D.V. Ravi, Managing Director, Shriram Capital Limited, will also join the board of the company, representing Envestor Ventures Limited.

Commenting on the transaction, S. Srinivasan, co-founder and Vice Chairman of Eywa Pharma said, “Eywa is ideally positioned to cater to the opportunities in the global generic pharmaceutical business, based on its focused approach on product selection, a strong relationship network and a motivated, empowered and dedicated team. We are excited at the opportunity of partnering with Eight Roads and the Shriram Group and are confident that their deep insight and knowledge in nurturing successful businesses will fuel Eywa’s growth prospects.”

“We remain excited about the generics pharmaceutical opportunity in the regulated US and European markets,” said Dr. Prem Pavoor, Partner at Eight Roads Ventures. “We believe that a team that brings a strong combination of product portfolio selection, supply chain and regulatory expertise will find success in these geographies, despite competition. Eight Roads Ventures looks forward to partnering with Srinivasan and Jayakumar in this phase of Eywa’s growth.”

About Eywa Pharma

Eywa is a global generic pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, marketing, sale, and distribution of generic finished dosage formulations.

A 15000 sq. ft. state of the art, world class lab for development of solid oral dosage forms has been established in Ticel Bio Park, Chennai, India. A portfolio of 15 products for the US, UK and European markets is under active development. The Company is well placed to develop and file ANDAs/MAs for a portfolio of 10-12 products on an annual basis.

About Eight Roads Ventures

Eight Roads Ventures India (ERVI, formerly known as Fidelity Growth Partners) is the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited. ERVI seeks to invest in high-quality, high-growth companies in India across a broad range of sectors. ERVI is committed to making the companies it invests in leaders in their industries through access to patient capital with a long term investment mindset, a powerful network of resources and a team of investment professionals with a proven track record of success. Eight Roads Ventures, Eight Roads, Fidelity, and Fidelity Growth Partners India are trademarks of FIL, Fidelity International Limited.

Akriveia Therapeutics LLC, an emerging immuno-oncology focused biotechnology company, today announced its recent $7.5 million Series A investment by F-Prime Capital Partners. Thomas Beck andBen Auspitz of F-Prime Capital Partners will join Akriveia’s Board of Directors alongside Akriveia’s Chief Executive Officer, Simon Tomlinson, with Dr. Beck becoming Chairman of the Board.

Akriveia Therapeutics is harnessing its proprietary platform to create immunotherapeutic products that are specifically activated in the microenvironment of the tumor. It is anticipated that this will substantially increase the utility of immuno-oncology agents and spare patients the treatment-limiting, debilitating and sometimes lethal side-effects of the current generation of immunotherapeutics.

The company also announced that it has entered into exclusive license agreements for key enabling technologies with City of Hope and Thomas Jefferson University.

 

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Orchard Therapeutics Limited is proud to report that it has been named by FierceBiotech as one of 2016’s Fierce 15 biotechnology companies, designating it as one of the most promising private biotechnology companies in the industry. The announcement was made during the FierceBiotech Drug Development Forum, which took place Monday September 19 in Boston, MA.

Orchard Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to bringing transformative ex-vivo gene therapies to patients with serious and life-threatening orphan diseases.

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Denali Therapeutics Inc. (“Denali”) today announced several critical milestones in the company’s growth, including its first Clinical Trial Application (“CTA”) to initiate a Phase 1 trial, previously undisclosed collaborations and licensing deals, and a $130 million Series B equity financing.

“We are pleased to share some of the significant progress we have made in building out Denali’s systematic and novel approaches and capabilities to defeat degeneration,” said Ryan Watts, PhD, CEO. “We continue to progress toward our ultimate goal of helping patients who suffer from debilitating neurodegenerative disease,” said Dr. Watts.

Denali is developing a diversified portfolio of therapeutics, based on scientific insights into the genetic causes and biological processes underlying neurodegenerative disease.  The company has selected four specific pathways that are implicated as triggers or effectors of neurodegeneration: degenogenes (genes that cause neurodegenerative disease when mutated), defective intracellular trafficking, glial dysfunction and axon degeneration. Denali is pursuing a rigorous biomarker-driven development strategy for each of these pathways.

 

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Acacia Pharma Group plc (“Acacia Pharma”), the supportive care company developing products for US and international markets, announces positive results from a pivotal Phase 3 study investigating BAREMSIS™ (amisulpride injection, formerly APD421) for the treatment of established post-operative nausea & vomiting (“PONV”). These data further support the efficacy of BAREMSIS which has previously been shown to prevent PONV alone, and in combination with standard anti-emetics in pivotal Phase 3 prophylaxis studies.

Dr Julian Gilbert, Acacia Pharma’s CEO commented: “We are delighted with these data demonstrating that BAREMSIS is safe and effective at treating patients suffering PONV after surgery. It confirms our confidence in the dopamine antiemetic mechanism of action, and that BAREMSIS is effective at treating, as well as preventing, PONV. Our objective is to seek approval for BAREMSIS for the treatment and prophylaxis of PONV alone and in combination, which will provide us with a broad and unique label once approved. No other antiemetic has a PONV treatment claim following failed prophylaxis with standard antiemetics and no other antiemetic has a combination use claim in PONV prophylaxis.”

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When his son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at six months of age, Doug Melton was incredulous. “I remember at night, my wife and I pricking his heel, and saying ‘No, this can’t be, this can’t be,’” he says. “It felt like we had lost the lottery.”

Later, his daughter would receive the same diagnosis. By then, Melton had already dropped what he was doing—studying frog eggs at Harvard—and launched an effort to grow pancreatic cells from scratch in his lab. The beta cells of the pancreas are the ones killed off in type 1 diabetes, and Melton reasoned he could replace them using new tissue manufactured from embryonic stem cells.

Melton’s effort, involving a 30-person lab at Harvard and a startup company, Semma Therapeutics, which he named after his children, Sam and Emma, is one of the most costly and sustained efforts to turn stem cells into transplantable tissue, an attempt that Melton admits has been full of false starts and dead ends. “The public definitely doesn’t appreciate that much of science is failure,” he says.

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