ShouTi Pharmaceuticals, a startup that brings computational techniques to drug discovery, has raised $100 million in Series B financing. The clinical-stage biotech designs small molecules intended to do the work of biologic and peptide drugs.
A new startup initiative in Israel aims to create and invest in startups that use artificial intelligence to address challenges in drug discovery and development. Called AION Labs, this innovation lab stems from an economic development effort from the Israeli government and will have contributions from AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer and Teva Pharmaceutical.
Biotech startup Tentarix Biotherapeutics has come out of stealth with $50 million and technology that develops biologic drugs endowed with multiple functions. The company aims to develop new multispecific biologic drugs for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Biotech startup Exo Therapeutics aims to overcome the challenges of drugging proteins by targeting exosites, locations that modulate enzyme activity. The company has four small molecule drug candidates for cancer and inflammation, and the company plans to use the $78 million in new financing to advance them toward human testing.
TrialSpark, a startup whose software manages various aspects of clinical trials, is becoming a drug developer. Led by CEO and cofounder Benjamine Liu, the company now plans to to acquire or partner on drug candidates, and to invest in biotech companies.
Cross-border biotech Anji Pharma closed $70 million in Series B funding to advance a drug pipeline that includes metabolic and cancer drugs. The biotech’s business model of finding promising drugs and forming subsidiaries to develop them is similar to approaches taken by Roivant Sciences and BridgeBio Pharma, among others.
Delix Therapeutics is developing drugs that offer the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs, but without the hallucinations and other side effects that accompany these compounds. The startup has closed $70 million in Series A financing as it works to bring its lead candidates into the clinic next year.
Biotech startup GenEdit is developing polymer nanoparticle technology to deliver genetic medicines, an approach intended to avoid the limitations of viral vectors. Already partnered with a clinical-stage company, it now has financial support from a big pharma giant that joined a syndicate of investors in a $26 million Series A round.
Dice Therapeutics raised $204 million from its IPO to support development of oral drugs that could compete against biologic drugs that are injected or infused. Also debuting on the public markets were Tyra Biosciences and Procept BioRobotics.
Vanqua Bio aims to treat rare form of Parkinson’s disease by boosting activity of an enzyme that is deficient in patients who have a particular genetic mutation. With $85 million in Series B financing, the biotech startup, which is based on Northwestern University research, aims to reach human testing within two years.
While Covid sent many firms to the wall, others prospered by spotting opportunities, from test kits to mask coatings The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on business, gutting high streets as familiar names fell into receivership. But for some less well-known firms, the past 18 months have been transformational. Those that have thrived did …
A year that changed the world – and medical companies’ fortunes Read More »
Biotech startup iECURE is based on work from the University of Pennsylvania scientist, who has been researching ways to use in vivo gene editing as a way to “knock in” healthy versions of a gene to treat rare liver diseases. The company, which will develop therapeutic candidates from Penn, has raised $50 million in Series …
Genetic meds pioneer James Wilson has a new startup, this time in gene editing Read More »
Mammoth Biosciences is applying CRISPR technology to both diagnostics and therapeutics. With the new financing, CEO Trevor Martin said that the company is looking ahead toward clinical trials and perhaps partnerships with larger companies.
A-Alpha Bio’s technology analyzes millions of protein-protein interactions simultaneously, a capability that speeds up drug discovery research. Biotech industry partners are already using the technology and now with $20 million in Series A funding, the startup plans to build machine-learning capabilities to crunch the data produced by all of those protein interactions.
A Roche drug that failed as a treatment for neurological disorders is now the lead program for Disc Medicines. CEO John Quisel said Roche’s clinical data showed the small molecule’s promise addressing a rare blood disorder and now the biotech startup has $90 million to advance that drug and another one into Phase 2 testing.
Five months after raising $55 million to back a new technology and a promising lead cancer immunotherapy, Asher Biotherapeutics has reeled in $108 million more. CEO Craig Gibbs said investors were enticed by encouraging new data suggesting Asher Bio’s lead program is superior to a competitor’s.
Atavistik Bio is one of several companies discovering and developing drugs that work by allostery, binding to less obvious sites of a target protein. Acting CEO John Josey said the startup aims to stand apart with its focus on understanding metabolic interactions, a path less trodden by others in allosteric drug discovery.
Vigil Neuroscience led the way with a $90 million round of funding, one of four biotech companies to close Series B financing rounds in the past week. The fresh capital comes as each of the companies looks ahead to bringing their respective drugs into the clinic.
The artificial intelligence-based technology of Iterative Scopes brings computer vision analysis to endoscopic images. The startup’s technology was initially developed to assist gastroenterologists in finding pre-cancerous polyps but CEO and founder Jonathan Ng said it’s also finding additional use helping pharmaceutical companies identify patients for clinical trials.
Of the 20 companies that went public in the last week of July, 11 of them represent some aspect of the life sciences. The tally of newly public companies made the week the biggest for IPO activity in more than 20 years.
Icosavax’s research developing a vaccine for a virus that can lead to deadly respiratory infections in the very young and the very old has found an additional application in the pursuit of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. The biotech’s $182 million IPO gives it the capital to move forward with clinical research on multiple …
Icosavax’s $182M IPO haul is key for RSV, but eyes are on its Covid vaccine too Read More »
The engineered viruses used to deliver gene therapies can spark complications and they can’t be re-dosed. Ring Therapeutics says viruses that evolved with humans can be better viral vectors and the startup has raised $117 million in new financing to continue its research.
Softbank led the Series C round of funding for Deep Genomics, a startup that applies its artificial intelligence technology to all aspects of discovering and developing new drugs. The Deep Genomics platform has yielded 10 programs; CEO Brendan Frey aims to advance four of them to the clinic in two years, all while tripling the …
AI-driven Deep Genomics gets $180M to turn biology into informational medicines Read More »
An amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals is being prepared for Phase 3 clinical testing on track to begin later this quarter. To support that research, the biotech has raised $135 million in financing.
Cancer drug developer Frontier Medicines already has a research partnership with AbbVie. Now the preclinical-stage biotech has raised $88.5 million for its own pipeline, including a drug that could offer advantages over a recently approved Amgen cancer therapy.
Cancer drug developer Erasca, whose mission is to “erase cancer,” has raised $300 million from its IPO. The clinical-stage biotech addresses a single elusive cancer target; it has multiple programs taking multiple approaches, two of them in human testing and the rest on track to join them.
Wugen, a biotech developing “off-the-shelf” natural killer and CAR T cell therapies, has raised $172 million in Series B financing. The company’s lead program has already reached human testing and the new capital will be used to continue that research and advance other pipeline programs to the clinic.
Startup PAQ Therapeutics is developing drugs work like Pac Man, gobbling up components of a cell associated with disease. The biotech has closed $30 million in financing to continue its research, with a neurodegenerative disorder as its lead disease target.
ProfoundBio is developing a type of targeted cancer therapy called antibody drug conjugates. As the biotech looks ahead to clinical trials, it has raised more than $55 million in Series A funding.
Four years after a private equity acquisition took Parexel private, the contract research organization is being acquired by two private equity firms for $8.5 billion. It’s the latest in a series of acquisitions to hit the CRO sector this year.
Led by former Viela Bio CEO Bing Yao, ArriVent Biopharma secures rights to drugs from emerging biotech hubs, then develops them for Western markets. The biotech’s first asset is a cancer drug licensed from Shanghai-based Allist Pharmaceuticals.
CAMP4 Therapeutics is developing a new kind of RNA therapy that treats disease by upregulating gene expression. The startup has raised $45 million as CEO Josh Mandel-Brehm steers toward clinical trials expected to begin next year in liver and brain diseases.
Senda Biosciences is developing drugs based on an understanding of intersystems biology—the way that humans interact with bacteria and plants. The startup, founded by Flagship Pioneering, has added $55 million to advance its three lead programs to clinical testing next year.
Stablix Therapeutics is developing technology that uses small molecules to stabilize a protein, keeping it from going to a cell’s built-in disposal system. The startup now has $63 million in funding to further invest in the technology and advance its first molecules toward the clinic.
Engine Biosciences closed a $43 million Series A financing that the startup will apply to its artificial intelligence-based technology for drug discovery. The company analyzes genetic interactions, “deciphering biology” to find new cancer drugs.
New investment company eureKARE aims to find promising microbiome and synthetic biology research in Europe and create new companies around that science. EureKARE has three startups in its portfolio, and it now has $60 million in Series A financing to build more.
Interline Therapeutics has technology that shows how proteins interact as communities, paving the way for the discovery of new drugs. CEO Zachary Sweeney, a Denali Therapeutics veteran, said the startup will use the $92 million in funding to advance programs in cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Perceptive Advisors has $515 million for its second fund investing in biotech startups. Portfolio Manager Chris Garabedian says Perceptive Xontogeny Ventures Fund II is looking to make Series A investments in early-stage companies with assets that can show a path to clinical testing.
Dyno Therapeutics’ technology for designing viral vectors that deliver gene therapies has led to partnerships with Novartis, Sarepta Therapeutics, and Roche. With the Series A financing, the startup plans to expand its technology to address more tissue types, and potentially add more partners.
Eikon Therapeutics joins a growing number of startups researching how proteins move in cells as a basis for drug discovery. Roger Perlmutter joins Eikon as its CEO just four months after he retired as Merck’s top research executive.
Cell therapy manufacturing is currently a manual, multi-step process that takes weeks. Startup Cellares, which is developing a system that automates the process and makes manufacturing scalable, will use the Series B financing to accelerate its work.
Neuroelectrics is planning a pivotal test of its wearable medical device, which delivers brain electrical stimulation to treat epilepsy. The startup’s Series A round of funding was led by Morningside Ventures.
Affinia Therapeutics, which has technology that could deliver gene therapies to more tissue types in the body, raised the Series B financing as it looks ahead to clinical testing. The biotech is the latest company to close a substantial round of funding for gene therapy technology.
Capsida Biotherapeutics’ technology can engineer viral vectors that deliver gene therapies to central nervous system cells. With that capability gave the startup was able to raise $50 million in Series A financing and a multi-drug research alliance AbbVie.
Covid crisis spurs growing interest in drugmakers, diagnostics and medical equipment firms UK drugmakers, diagnostics, medical equipment and other life sciences companies have raised £10.6bn from private funding rounds and stock market flotations in the first three months of the year, more than half of last year’s record total, according to a report. Last year, …
Investors flock to life sciences as UK sector breaks funding record Read More »
The list of FDA-approved antibody drug conjugates (ADC) is growing, and two more biotech startups have emerged from stealth with new cash and new approaches to this type of cancer drug. Adcendo and Adcentrx raised a combined $112 from their Series A financings.
Boundless Bio’s research has uncovered a previously unknown driver of cancer growth and drug resistance. With $105 million in Series B financing, the biotech is on a path to bring to the clinic small molecules that address this target, called extrachromosomal DNA.
Several companies are developing immunotherapies targeting the “don’t eat me” cancer protein CD47. Arch Oncology, which is developing drugs with features that could set them apart from the field, now has $105 million for multiple clinical trials.
Healthcare companies had another record-breaking quarter, according to CBInsights. They raised a total of $31.6 billion in the first quarter, including big investments in telehealth and health IT.
With two cancer programs already making progress, Repertoire Immune Medicines will use the Series B financing to expand its immune synapse research to autoimmune disorders and infectious disease. CEO John Cox said his startup’s approach could advance immune medicines beyond the scope of currently available therapies.
RA Capital led Ventus Therapeutics’ Series B financing, which the startup will use to develop its pipeline of medicines for “undruggable” disease targets. CEO Marcelo Bigal said the cash also gives Ventus the flexibility to consider an IPO.
Investments are expected to decline at the end of 2020 after digital health saw record highs last quarter, according to early data from CBInsights.
Global healthcare funding set a new record in the third quarter, according to data from CBInsights. Healthcare companies raised a total of $21.8 billion across 1,539 deals.
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