Pharmaceutical Industry 30 Mar – 5 Apr: Ft DNA Script, Ondine Biomedical and Laigo Bio
- DNA Script is expanding access to its SYNTAX platform across Latin America, South Korea and Japan through new distribution partnerships.
- Ondine Biomedical has passed 93% enrolment in its major North American phase 3 LANTERN study for Steriwave.
- Laigo Bio has completed the second close of its seed financing round at €5.5m, bringing total funding raised to €17m.
A Pharmaceutical Industry Story Defined by Speed, Access and Scientific Ambition
Three separate developments from DNA Script, Ondine Biomedical and Laigo Bio are helping to illustrate where momentum is building across the pharmaceutical industry.
While each story sits in a different part of the life sciences landscape, they are connected by a common theme: improving access to critical technologies, accelerating timelines and giving researchers and clinicians greater control over how innovation reaches patients.
From decentralised DNA production and a late-stage infection prevention study to fresh investment in targeted degradation therapies, these announcements reflect an industry that is pushing hard to solve practical bottlenecks while continuing to back highly specialised scientific platforms.
DNA Script Expands SYNTAX Distribution to Bring DNA Production Closer to Researchers
DNA Script’s latest expansion marks an important move in the drive to make oligonucleotide production more local, more responsive and less dependent on distant manufacturing hubs.
The company’s SYNTAX platform, which provides automated, in-house and on-demand oligonucleotide production in only a few hours, will now be distributed across Latin America by Gencell and in South Korea by BMS, while customers in Japan will be supported by BioStream.
That matters because oligonucleotides are a critical input across a wide range of scientific and pharmaceutical applications, yet researchers located far from large-scale synthesis centres in Europe and the United States often face long delivery times and logistical constraints.
Those delays can do more than frustrate procurement teams. They can slow project timelines, interrupt research flow and make laboratories overly reliant on centralised international supply chains.
By working through established regional networks, DNA Script’s new partners are aiming to shift that model. Instead of waiting on overseas manufacturing, customers in these regions will gain local access to DNA synthesis, allowing for faster turnaround and greater operational independence.
The President of BioStream said the partnership strengthens the company’s ability to deliver advanced life sciences technologies throughout Japan, while helping customers reduce dependence on overseas synthesis and long delivery timelines.
In South Korea, the Vice President of Bio-Medical Science, BMS, said SYNTAX gives researchers greater speed, control and independence in oligonucleotide production, improving ownership of project workflows.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Gencell said the company is proud to help strengthen Latin America’s scientific and technological capabilities, positioning the region as a more competitive player in global science and biotechnology.
At the heart of the system is DNA Script’s proprietary Enzymatic DNA Synthesis technology, delivered through the automated benchtop SYNTAX platform.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer said the partnerships form part of a broader strategy to scale global accessibility and availability of ssDNA oligos, with the aim of making them available to researchers anywhere in the world.
Ondine Biomedical Moves Closer to FDA Submission with LANTERN Study Progress
In another major development, Ondine Biomedical has announced that its North American phase 3 study has now reached more than 93% enrolment, bringing the company closer to an FDA submission.
The study, known as LANTERN, is evaluating Steriwave as a preventative measure against surgical site infections in more than 5,000 surgical patients across 14 HCA Healthcare hospitals in America and four Canadian centres.
Steriwave is a nasal photodisinfection technology designed to tackle a major healthcare burden with a different approach to the existing standard of care.
At present, mupirocin is commonly used as the standard preoperative treatment, but it requires five days of self-administration at home. Steriwave, by contrast, is a non-antibiotic treatment administered by a nurse-assistant in just five minutes, delivering what the company says is a 100% adherence rate.
That operational advantage is significant in a hospital setting, particularly when healthcare systems are under pressure to reduce infection rates while also making protocols easier to implement consistently.
Surgical site infections remain a major cost and care challenge, with healthcare-associated infections such as SSIs costing the American healthcare system around $35bn annually.
Ondine’s CEO described LANTERN as a landmark investigation into the potential for universal nasal decolonisation to meaningfully reduce surgical site infections. With full enrollment approaching, the company is now looking ahead to topline results expected in Spring 2026, as well as the next step of moving forward with its FDA submission.
Steriwave already has a footprint beyond North America. It is currently used preoperatively for surgical patients and for infection control in Intensive Care Units across hospitals in the United Kingdom, EU and Canada.
The fact that the FDA has granted the technology both Qualified Infectious Disease Product designation and Fast Track status adds further weight to the programme, suggesting regulators see meaningful potential in its ability to address a significant healthcare need.
Ondine, a Canadian life sciences company, continues to build its pipeline around light-activated antimicrobial therapies based on its photodisinfection technology. This latest milestone suggests that one of its most closely watched programmes is moving into a decisive phase.
Laigo Bio Secures Fresh Capital to Push SureTACs Programmes Forward
Elsewhere in the sector, Laigo Bio has completed the second close of its seed financing round at €5.5m, bringing the total amount raised to €17m.
New co-lead investor Biovance Capital joined existing co-lead investor Kurma Partners in providing the latest investment, giving the company additional firepower as it advances its proprietary degradation platform.
The funding will be used to further develop Laigo’s Surface Removal Targeting Chimeras, or SureTACs, oncology programmes, while also progressing selected autoimmune, immunology and graft rejection candidate programmes.
The focus here is not simply on extending runway. It is about accelerating a platform that the company believes could open up new possibilities for highly selective, dual targeted therapies.
Using its proprietary SureTACs platform, Laigo Bio can generate bispecific antibodies that pair the optimal E3 ligase with a disease-causing target protein. This drives the target protein’s ubiquitination and lysosomal degradation with a high degree of specificity, creating the potential for therapies that are both precise and differentiated.
The General Partner at Biovance Capital said Laigo has demonstrated remarkable in vivo and in vitro efficacy through its SureTACs degradation technology, alongside high selectivity and improved toxicity and safety.
That is the kind of endorsement investors do not hand out lightly, particularly in a funding environment where scientific credibility and translational potential are being examined more closely than ever.
Laigo Bio’s CEO said the second close further validates both the platform’s potential and its ability to identify first-in-class dual targeted therapies capable of redefining treatment in cancer and autoimmune disease. The additional backing from Biovance Capital, together with further support from Kurma Partners, is expected to accelerate oncology programmes towards the clinic and strengthen discovery work in auto-immunity and immunology.
The company’s wider investor syndicate includes Kurma Partners, Biovance Capital, Curie Capital, Argobio Studio, Angelini Ventures, Eurazeo, Oncode Bridge Fund, ROM Utrecht Region and Cancer Research Horizons, underlining the breadth of support now sitting behind the platform.
What This Means for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Pharmaceutical Production
Taken together, these developments have meaningful implications for pharmaceutical manufacturing and pharmaceutical production.
DNA Script’s push to localise DNA synthesis could help reduce dependence on centralised overseas production, improve speed to experiment and make vital research inputs more resilient in regions that have historically faced longer wait times. I
n manufacturing terms, that signals a shift towards more distributed, flexible and demand-led production models for critical biological building blocks.
Ondine Biomedical’s progress with Steriwave highlights another important manufacturing and production theme: the growing value of scalable, easy-to-administer healthcare technologies that can be integrated into routine clinical pathways without adding friction.
If adopted more widely, technologies like this can influence how infection prevention products are produced, packaged, distributed and deployed within hospital systems.
Laigo Bio’s funding news, meanwhile, speaks to the industry’s continued investment in complex biologic and targeted therapeutic platforms. As programmes move nearer to the clinic, they place new demands on development manufacturing, process optimisation and the production capabilities needed to support increasingly sophisticated drug candidates.
In simple terms, innovation at the discovery stage often sets the direction of future pharmaceutical production, and these kinds of platforms are shaping what tomorrow’s manufacturing priorities may look like.
A Sector Moving with Intent
What stands out across all three stories is not just scientific progress, but strategic intent.
DNA Script is addressing access and supply chain dependence. Ondine Biomedical is advancing a late-stage programme aimed at a very costly and persistent hospital challenge. Laigo Bio is turning investor confidence into momentum for a therapeutic platform designed to tackle difficult disease biology with greater precision.
These are different stories, but they belong to the same wider picture. The pharmaceutical industry is not standing still. It is becoming more decentralised in some areas, more specialised in others and increasingly focused on solutions that save time, improve control and create stronger translational pathways from innovation to real-world use.
Conclusion
From localised DNA production and infection prevention innovation to fresh capital for targeted degradation therapies, DNA Script, Ondine Biomedical and Laigo Bio have each delivered news that carries weight beyond their own businesses.
Collectively, these developments show an industry working to remove bottlenecks, strengthen resilience and back technologies with the potential to change how research, treatment and production are carried out.
For the pharmaceutical industry, the message is clear: speed, accessibility and precision are no longer just ambitions on paper. They are becoming defining features of the sector’s next phase.
News Credits:
DNA Script signs SYNTAX distribution agreements with Gencell, BMS and Biostream
Ondine’s Steriwave phase 3 trial reaches 93% enrolment milestone
Laigo Bio completes final close of €17m seed financing round
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