Summer Science &
Bastille Day

🇫🇷 Co-sponsored by French BioBeach

AlidaBio Bastille Day Celebration

No July FBB Happy Hour — but we're not leaving you without a reason to celebrate! French BioBeach is proud to co-sponsor this special Bastille Day event with AlidaBio. Free drinks with registration, biotech vendor booths, and open networking. Come celebrate la fête nationale with the San Diego life sciences community!

📍 New English Brewing · 11545 Sorrento Valley Rd #305, San Diego, CA 92121

🗓 Our next FBB Happy Hour returns on August 13th — details coming soon. See you then!

Last June 11, we gathered 130 life scientists, entrepreneurs, and biotech professionals on the terrace at The Bella Lounge in La Jolla to celebrate 20 years of French BioBeach. From a founding agreement signed in Paris in 2006 — in the presence of Christine Lagarde — to a community of 15,000+ subscribers across two continents, one networking event at a time. A huge thank you to our June sponsor CDD Vault — Keith Williamson and Sage Olson brought the energy, the materials, and yes... the rubber ducks 🦆 Thank you to Janice Darlington for her continued support. And it was wonderful to see some of the original CureMatch crew back: Philippe Faurie, Tyler Sylvester, Eden Romm, Alain Rolland, and Susan Lane-Leonard. Twenty years down. Many more to go. 🇫🇷🇺🇸

At BIO International 2026, what started as a formal panel turned into a lively and genuinely fun roundtable conversation. With the French Pavilion buzzing around us, our panelists — Chloe Evans (France Biotech), Elsa Kress (MabDesign), and Philippe Teboul (AzurBio) — sparked an engaged and candid discussion on French biotech's global momentum, the opportunities in the US market, and the power of community-driven BD. The energy in the room was exactly what FBB is all about. More to come — BIO always delivers.

BIO International returned to San Diego (June 22–25) with deal activity at a fever pitch — $65 billion in year-to-date M&A set the tone. Industry leaders noted that the traditional "dual track" of IPO vs. M&A has evolved into triple and quadruple strategies, as biotechs simultaneously pursue licensing, collaborations, and exit options. For the French ecosystem, France Biotech anchored the French Pavilion at Booth #3325, showcasing a delegation of leading HealthTech companies — with France ranking second in Europe by capital raised in 2025.

The European Commission approved Sanofi's Cenrifki (tolebrutinib) as the first therapy designed to slow disability progression in adults with non-relapsing secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) — a landmark approval based on the Phase 3 HERCULES study. An oral, brain-penetrant BTK inhibitor targeting smoldering neuroinflammation, Cenrifki addresses a patient population with very few available treatment options.

Laboratoires Pierre Fabre secured European Commission approval for Braftovi® (encorafenib) in combination with cetuximab and FOLFOX as the first-line treatment for adults with BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer — the first and only BRAF-targeted therapy approved in this setting in the EU. The Phase 3 BREAKWATER trial showed a 51% reduction in risk of death vs. standard chemotherapy.

French independent pharma group Servier announced an agreement to acquire the muscular dystrophy business of Edgewise Therapeutics for up to $2.65 billion ($1.55B upfront + $1.1B in milestones). The deal centers on sevasemten, a first-in-class fast skeletal myosin inhibitor in pivotal trials for Becker and Duchenne muscular dystrophy — a major statement of intent from French pharma on the global stage.

Abivax announced positive Phase 3 ABTECT maintenance trial results for obefazimod, its first-in-class oral miR-124 enhancer for moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Both the 25 mg and 50 mg doses met the primary endpoint of clinical remission and all key secondary endpoints at Week 44. The company plans to submit an NDA to the FDA in late Q4 2026.

The UK's MHRA granted Ipsen's Bylvay (odevixibat) a new indication for the treatment of cholestatic pruritus in Alagille syndrome in patients aged 6 months and older — adding another rare disease win for the French pharma group following its strong EASL data earlier this year.

GENFIT reported positive Phase 1b results showing that GNS561, its investigational autophagy inhibitor combined with MEK inhibitor trametinib, was well tolerated and demonstrated early signs of antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with KRAS-mutated cholangiocarcinoma — supporting advancement to a Phase 2 trial in H2 2026.

Lys Therapeutics, pioneering a novel approach targeting the tPA-NMDAr axis in neurodegenerative and neurovascular diseases, announced that it has raised more than €25 million since its founding in 2021. The funding supports clinical development of lead candidate LYS241, following key preclinical, regulatory, and manufacturing milestones.

San Diego-based Iambic Therapeutics announced a drug discovery collaboration with Bayer, granting the German pharma giant access to its AI platform — including Enchant (multimodal transformer) and NeuralPLexer (protein-ligand structure prediction) — to identify novel small molecules against hard-to-drug targets. Bayer joins a rapidly growing roster of pharma partners betting on Iambic's "molecular superintelligence" vision. Iambic's lead program IAM1363, a covalent Type II HER2 inhibitor, is already in Phase 1/1b clinical trials — one of the first AI-native molecules to reach patients.

Inhibrx announced that the FDA accepted its Biologics License Application for ozekibart to treat unresectable or metastatic conventional chondrosarcoma, with a decision expected by April 14, 2027 — potentially making it the first approved therapy for this rare bone cancer.

Hillhurst Bio dosed the first patient in its Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating HBI-002, a novel oral low-dose carbon monoxide therapy assessing safety and potential disease-modifying effects in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Replicate Bioscience received a grant to advance its self-replicating RNA (srRNA) tuberculosis vaccine candidates, aiming to develop more effective and accessible vaccines against one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases.

UC San Diego's Moores Cancer Center received a prestigious $25 million grant, reinforcing La Jolla's position as one of the nation's leading oncology research hubs.