Financing

Actuate Therapeutics Inc. has secured $21.7 million in a series B round.

Adma Biologics Inc. closed its underwritten public offering for gross proceeds of $51.75 million.

Bicycle Therapeutics plc priced its IPO of 4.33 million American depositary shares (ADSs), representing 4.33 million ordinary shares, at $14 per ADS for gross proceeds of approximately $60.7 million.

Biofourmis Inc. said it closed a $35 million series B financing round.

Elevatebio Inc.’s portfolio company, Allovir, raised $120 million in a series B financing.

Fountain Healthcare Partners closed its third fund, Fountain Healthcare Partners Fund III LP, with a raise of €118 million (US$131.5 million).

Ideaya Biosciences Inc. has raised $50 million from its IPO of 5 million shares at $10.

Inhibrx Inc. said it entered an agreement with Viking Global Investors LP for the offering and sale of convertible promissory notes in a $40 million private placement.

Insmed Inc. priced a registered underwritten public offering for gross proceeds of approximately $250 million.

Locana Inc. closed on an oversubscribed $55 million series A deal.

Quell Therapeutics Ltd. has secured £35 million (US$44.5 million) in series A funding.

Reneo Pharmaceuticals Inc. has completed a $50 million series A financing.

Schrödinger LLC said several new investors have joined its latest funding round, bringing the total raised to $110 million.

Storm Therapeutics Ltd. announced a further close of its series A, adding a further £14 million (US$17.8 million), to bring the round up to $38.1 million.

Deals

Amgen Inc. has made a $167 million cash offer to acquire Nuevolution AB.

Evotec SE is moving into biologics discovery and manufacturing via the acquisition of Just Biotherapeutics Inc., paying $60 million in cash up front, with a further $30 million to follow, mainly in sales-related milestones.

Novelion Therapeutics Inc. said its wholly owned subsidiary, Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc., has entered a plan funding agreement and a restructuring support agreement that will result in Aegerion selling 100% of its reorganized stock to, and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of, Amryt Pharma plc.

Qiagen NV and Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. will collaborate to co-develop a companion diagnostic to guide clinical decision-making for the use of Inovio’s DNA-based immunotherapy to treat cervical dysplasia caused by human papillomavirus.

Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG signed an exclusive agreement allowing Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA to in-license Raxone (idebenone) to treat Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy in exchange for up to CHF105 million (US$104.5 million), including CHF50 million in cash up front and near- to mid-term sales milestone payments of up to CHF55 million.

Synlogic Inc. is collaborating with Roche Holding AG to test its SYNB-1891, a non-pathogenic strain of E. coli expressing a STING agonist, with Roche’s PD-L1 drug, Tecentriq (atezolizumab), in patients with advanced tumors.

The technology commercialization arm of the Medical Research Council, Lifearc, sold off a portion of its future royalty stream to Merck & Co. Inc.’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for $1.297 billion to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, through its Switzerland-based subsidiary, CPPIB Credit Europe Sarl.

Merck & Co. Inc. has made a $2.2 billion buyout offer for Peloton Therapeutics Inc., including $1.05 billion in cash up front. That would bring Merck at least two hypoxia inducible factor-2 alpha antagonists, including Peloton’s lead drug, PT-2977, a potential oral treatment for renal cell carcinoma.

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. has in-licensed TNX-1300 (formerly RBP-8000), a recombinant enzyme that degrades and metabolizes cocaine in cocaine abusers, from Columbia University.

Trovagene Inc. inked an agreement with Nektar Therapeutics Inc. for a research collaboration exploring antitumor activity and tolerability of the combination of onvansertib, Trovagene’s oral Polo-like Kinase 1 inhibitor, and Onzeald (etirinotecan pegol), Nektar’s topoisomerase I inhibitor, in two preclinical tumor models of colorectal cancer.

Verily Life Sciences LLC, part of Alphabet Inc., has established strategic alliances with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Pfizer Inc., Sanofi SA and Novartis AG to use its Project Baseline to develop digital, patient-centered clinical research programs.

…And more

Abbvie Inc. is shuttering all studies of depatuxizumab mafodotin (ABT-414; Depatux-M) because a phase III trial of the drug demonstrated no survival benefit in newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients.

Corrona LLC said Genentech Inc., a unit of Roche Holding AG, became the first biopharma to join the Corrona Multiple Sclerosis Registry.

Ocular Therapeutix Inc.’s phase III trial of OTX-TP (travoprost), a sustained-release punctal plug for glaucoma and ocular hypertension, failed to meet its primary endpoint, but it also reached what it called a “statistically significant” reduction of intraocular pressure vs. placebo at eight of nine prespecified time points.

T3d Therapeutics Inc., which is developing T3D-959, an orally administered treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, received a grant expected to total $9 million over four years from the National Institute on Aging.

Transcelerate Biopharma Inc. is expanding its clinical and drug safety efforts with three additional initiatives: the Common Clinical Serious Adverse Events Fields Initiative; the Modernization of Data Analytics for Clinical Development Initiative; and, the Interpretation of Guidances and Regulations Initiative in drug safety, launched last year, will expand in scope from pharmacovigilance to include clinical guidance and regulations. It also said Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. joined the not-for-profit consortium.