Tainted biotech bows out

TeGenero, the German biotech firm at the centre of March’s disastrous West London drug trials, has filed for bankruptcy, with management citing an inability to secure additional funding as the reason for the move.

Following the trials, which were investigating anti-inflammatory drug candidate TGN1412 and left six hitherto healthy volunteers seriously ill, the biotech industry as a whole has found itself under the microscope. However, it does now seem as though the TeGenero case has not had the widespread impact many previously feared.

In terms of participation in drug trials, for example, anecdotal evidence suggests that interest has actually increased — a phenomenon attributed to increased public awareness of the financial rewards afforded to the healthy volunteers taking part.

On the fundraising front, meanwhile, recent months do not appear to have seen a marked tightening of purse strings either. ‘A lot of companies have been successful in raising money during the first half of the year,’ Mike Ward from industry commentator BioCentury explains. ‘The European biotech industry has secured around C2 billion of investment during this period and there have been stock market flotations right across the continent.

‘Biotech investors tend to be very sophisticated and understand that every company in the sector is different, so it seems that what went wrong [at TeGenero] hasn’t been that problematic for the sector or had wider implications.’