Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc. has been awarded a $4 million grant by California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support the completion of IND-enabling activities with ENTLEP-001, a durable genetic medicine for the treatment of congenital generalized lipodystrophy.

Biopharma nonprofit deals remained low in 2024, compared to the pandemic and pre-pandemic years, while grants saw a slight decline from the previous year.

Ymmunobio AG, in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute, has received an Innosuisse grant to develop innovative radioactive loaded antibodies for the treatment and diagnosis of solid tumors based on Ymmunobio’s proprietary YB-800.

Through September 2024, biopharma firms secured $720.56 million in nonprofit deals, up in value through July and also marking a 21% rise from the $593.23 million in the first three quarters of 2023, though still falling short of 2019-2022 levels. Grants saw an even sharper surge, jumping 131% year-over-year from $1.66 billion to $3.84 billion in the same period, falling short only of 2020 in value.

Through July 2024, biopharma firms received $2.52 billion in grants, marking a 52% increase from $1.66 billion in grants during the same period last year. However, nonprofit deals are at their lowest level on record, according to BioWorld’s records. Although nonprofit deal values were initially higher in April compared to 2023, they have since dropped and are now well below the levels seen in prior years.

Kevirx Inc. has been awarded nearly $2 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)’s peer-reviewed medical research program.

Lift Biosciences Ltd. has been awarded a grant of over £1 million (US$1.3 million) from Innovate UK that will fund a collaboration between Lift and researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $5 million grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to support research aimed at developing new immunotherapies for different types of blood-based cancers.

Biopharma grants maintained their upward trajectory throughout 2023, culminating in a nearly 67% increase in value compared to 2022, mirroring the trend observed in October. Conversely, nonprofit deal value witnessed a continued year-over-year decline, falling by more than 90% in value.

Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) has awarded US$ 2.2 million to Limmatech Biologics AG to advance the development of its novel vaccine candidate to prevent Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections.