Metacrine Inc., of San Diego, said it closed a $22 million series B financing led by new investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA), along with participation from existing investors Arch, Polaris, Venbio and Alexandria Venture Investments. Proceeds will be used to advance MET-409, an oral nonbile acid FXR agonist, into late-stage IND-enabling studies, with first-in-human studies planned to start in the first half of 2018.