African Swine Fever

Alpha Sophia is set to make waves at the LSI USA 2024 Emerging MedTech Summit in Dana Point, California, from March 18-22. Led by CEO Paul-Lukas Hoffschmidt, Alpha Sophia will unveil a major product update during the event, promising significant enhancements to its platform and model. Hoffschmidt will spearhead a thought leadership session on March 21 alongside industry experts Brad Patt (Tetrous), Robert Hamilton (Neurasignal), and James Peacock (Nocira). This session will mark the formal announcement of game-changing improvements to the Alpha Sophia platform, tailored to meet the needs of medtech sales leaders. The updates showcased at the LSI summit are poised to redefine the landscape of go-to-market tactics for the Medtech industry, offering innovative solutions that address the dynamic challenges faced by professionals in this field. Alpha Sophia remains committed to driving meaningful change and empowering sales professionals with cutting-edge tools and strategies. Baseimmune, a biotech company that uses proprietary, deep learning AI to predict future pathogen mutations to generate novel vaccines, has raised $11.3 million in a Series A funding round led by new investors MSD Global Health Innovation Fund and IQ Capital. Existing investors also too part in the round, including Hoxton Ventures, Creator Fund, Beast Ventures and Maki.vc. The funding will be used to accelerate development of Baseimmune’s three vaccine candidates currently in preclinical development for African swine fever, coronavirus, and malaria. The funding will also be used to advance its technology, add staff, increase the number of programs in development and accelerate new vaccine programs. To read more, click here. Abridge, which focuses on generative AI for clinical documentation, has raised $150 million in a Series C funding round. Abridge has also embarked on a new enterprise agreement with the Yale New Haven Health System, according to a press release. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and will also join the board. Other new and existing investors include co-lead Redpoint Ventures, with support from IVP, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Wittington Ventures, Mass General Brigham Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Fund (AIDIF), Kaiser Permanente Ventures, and CVS Health Ventures. To read more, click here. Carewell, an online retailer focused serving family caregivers with tools and resources to care for their loved ones, has raised a $24.7 million Series B round. The goal is to further accelerate streamlining access to home health products, according to a press release. The principals of MBF Healthcare led the round, with participation from existing investors Sageview Capital and Headline among others. Additionally, the company has made several senior level hires amidst plans to relocate their headquarters to Miami. Additional investors in this round of funding include Primetime Partners, Nextview, Florida Opportunity Fund, and Anchor. To read more, click here. Redi Health has closed $14 million in a Series B funding round. The funding round was led by Blue Heron Capital. North Coast Ventures and existing investors Refinery Ventures, Mutual Capital Partners, Rev1 Ventures and M25 also took pat in the round. Redi Health combines health management technology to help people manage chronic conditions with digital pharma services. It will use the fresh capital to develop and launch new products, expand its network and accelerate overall growth, according to a press release. To read more, click here.

While the world learned in 2020 the importance of designing effective vaccines quickly, Baseimmune was a year ahead of the curve.  “I love vaccines because they’re the only method to eradicate diseases from the planet,” CEO Joshua Blight told FirstWord. “But we need to be smarter than the pathogen.” He co-founded Baseimmune in 2019 with chief scientific officer Ariane Gomes after the pair met at the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, where they envisioned an evolution-informed method of creating vaccines. To put that vision into practice, they recruited the company’s third co-founder and chief technology officer Phillip Kemlo, a software engineer who built the company’s AI-driven vaccine design platform.Now Baseimmune has raised a $11.3 million-series A on the strength of that platform and the three preclinical vaccines it has produced so far, including for coronavirus and malaria.  The company’s hybrid business model allows for internal asset development, with out-licensing the goal after each programme has been de-risked, as well as partnerships for vaccine development. New investors MSD Global Health Innovation Fund and IQ Capital co-led Monday’s round, which saw participation from existing investors including Hoxton Ventures, Creator Fund, Beast Ventures and Maki.vc.Preempting evolutionBaseimmune’s vaccine algorithm designs synthetic antigens that are capable of triggering a wide-ranging immune response against multiple facets of a pathogen, not just a single protein, as is the norm today. Plus, the company’s antigens take into account pathogenic aspects that don’t yet exist in nature – part of its goal to “future proof” vaccines against eventual mutations. “Instead of just chasing the next mutation, the next variant, we’re trying to understand evolution, the evasion of pathogens, and build that into a vaccine,” Gomes told FirstWord. The algorithm analyses genomic, epidemiological, immunological, clinical and evolutionary data to predict how a pathogen might evolve, which informs the design of each synthetic antigen. Baseimmune isn’t just an AI company though, Blight emphasised. “We’re directed by science, but facilitated by technology,” he said. “Everything we’re doing computationally is validated in our lab.”Proving its powerBaseimmune’s first three programmes were chosen to prove several points about the technology: its applicability to any kind of pathogen; its efficacy against relatively unknown targets; and its impact on public health.  That’s why, to showcase how the platform is universal, BaseImmune chose one human pathogen, one veterinary virus, and a parasite to initially develop vaccines against.  Malaria in particular is especially difficult to prevent, which makes it a great proof-of-concept for the algorithm, Blight said. The disease-causing parasite, which is more genetically complex than a typical virus, presents differently at each stage of its life cycle, and relies on mosquitoes to infect humans. “One of the benefits of what our platform can do is that we can target a large number of [malaria] genes in one single antigen,” Blight said. “If you’re able to cover enough of these, then you can have a significant impact in preventing infection.”African swine fever was also chosen because there isn’t a lot of existing experimental data for the virus. That contrasts sharply with vaccine development today, which often draws on a deep body of literature to decide which antigen is most likely to trigger a robust immune response – as was the case with COVID-19 vaccines, which all target the spike protein, thanks to years of research on coronaviruses showing the protein’s necessity to invade host cells. With African swine fever, “we don’t have that world of resources in terms of research,” which may also be lacking for a pathogen that emerges in the future, Gomes said. “Our technology can bridge that knowledge gap by looking for rules that are common to all pathogens, like evolution and evasion.” Finally, all three programmes are intended to address critical public health concerns. That’s why Baseimmune is targeting the entirety of the coronavirus family – like the common cold – with its vaccine, not just COVID-19.

- New investors MSD Global Health Innovation Fund and IQ Capital co-led Series A with existing investors participating - AI-based design algorithm shortens the time it takes to develop stronger cross-protective vaccine candidates LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Baseimmune, a biotech company that uses proprietary, deep learning AI to predict future pathogen mutations to generate novel vaccines, announced the close of $11.3 million [£9 million] in Series A funding led by new investors MSD Global Health Innovation Fund and IQ Capital, with participation from existing investors including Hoxton Ventures, Creator Fund, Beast Ventures and Maki.vc. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: From left to right: Baseimmune co-founders Ariane C. Gomes (Chief Scientific Officer), Phillip Kemlo (Chief Technology Officer), and Joshua Blight (Chief Executive Officer). Photo credit: Baseimmune “We’re thrilled to have the support of a top-tier investor syndicate led by MSD Global Health Innovation Fund and IQ Capital. This funding will enable us to accelerate the development of our technology, scale our programs, and expedite the delivery of impactful vaccines against future pathogens,” said Joshua Blight, CEO & Co-Founder, Baseimmune. “We are more excited than ever about the possibilities and remain focused in our commitment to disrupting the future of pandemic readiness.” The funding will enable Baseimmune to accelerate development of its three vaccine candidates currently in preclinical development for African swine fever, coronavirus, and malaria. The company will also use the new capital to further advance its technology, expand its team, increase the number of programs in development and accelerate new vaccine programs. Baseimmune was founded in 2019 by Joshua Blight and Ariane Gomes, who met while doing their PhDs at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, and software engineer Phillip Kemlo who built the antigen design platform. Baseimmune’s vaccine design algorithm crunches genomic, epidemiological, immunological, clinical and evolutionary data together to create entirely new synthetic antigenic proteins containing the parts of the pathogen that are most likely to evoke a strong protective immune response. The technology is based on a computational platform deciphering pathogen evolution to design cross-protective vaccines. By using big data and a design algorithm, Baseimmune has been able to shorten the time it takes to develop a vaccine candidate. The antigen designs can be fed into any vaccine technology platform, including mRNA, DNA and viral vectors, to create universal “future-proof” vaccines engineered to be effective against current and potentially emerging variants. “We believe Baseimmune’s technology marks a significant advancement in proactive, adaptable vaccine solutions,” said David M. Rubin, Managing Director, MSD Global Health Innovation Fund. “We are excited to support this forward-looking team." At the core of every vaccine lies the antigen, a key pathogen-derived component. Baseimmune's proprietary AI algorithm goes beyond conventional approaches, creating synthetic antigens that encompass all crucial elements of a pathogen, enhancing the likelihood of eliciting a robust immune response. This revolutionary antigen design can seamlessly integrate into any vaccine technology platform for efficient lab testing and streamlined clinical trials. "We are excited to announce our strategic investment in Baseimmune, a cutting-edge biotech leveraging AI to innovate vaccine therapies,” said Alex Wilson, Partner, IQ Capital. “By using a computational platform and innovative AI prediction algorithm, Baseimmune is pioneering the next generation of universal vaccines against a spectrum of human and animal health threats, from COVID to malaria and African Swine Fever.” About Baseimmune Founded in 2019 by a technical team of vaccine and software developers, Baseimmune is accelerating discovery of novel and cross-protective vaccines. Our founders pioneered the use of computational approaches to design cross-protective vaccines against various infectious diseases while at the Jenner Institute University of Oxford with two candidates in clinical trials. For more information visit .