Launching with a $300 million series A financing, Renagade Therapeutics has set out to target disease on a large scale – at every point throughout the human body where disease forms – through its RNA platform designed to deliver, code, edit and insert genetic information. The round, led by MPM Bioimpact and F2 Ventures, is the largest venture capital round for a U.S.-based company this year, and it is among the top series A rounds to date for a biopharma company. The company’s platform combines its delivery technologies, including novel lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), with an array of coding, editing and gene insertion tools. The aim is to deliver RNA medicines to tissues and cells that were previously inaccessible.

Icosavax raises $67.8M and posts strong phase I RSV data

While pricing a $67.8 million registered direct offering, Icosavax Inc. also released positive top-line interim data from a phase I study of IVX-A12 against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus in older adults. The company is in a massive niche with several other developers that are competing for what in five years could be a $10 billion market. GSK plc’s May 3 approval of Arexvy in the U.S. made it the first RSV vaccine. With the direct offering, the company said it now expects to fund its operations into the second half 2025. Icosavax’s stock (NASDAQ:ICVX) reacted strongly at midday, with shares trading 25% upward to about $9.90 each.

Coherent Biopharma nets $100M in financing for Bi-XDC drugs

Coherent Biopharma Co. Ltd. raised $100 million in series B and B+ financing rounds to step up its efforts to develop its bi-targeting ligand-drug conjugate (Bi-XDC) drugs and get them to market. It plans to use its newly expanded war chest to support the clinical trials of three candidates, CBP-1008, CBP-1018 and CBP-1019, as well as an IND application for CBP-8008 in China and the U.S., the company told BioWorld.

Congress staging Act 2 of US Rx pricing reforms

When it comes to cutting U.S. prescription drug prices, last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, with its inflationary rebates and direct Medicare negotiations, was just Act 1. Now lawmakers, in both the House and Senate, are feverishly working on a bipartisan script for Act 2 that goes beyond biopharma’s role in pricing. Passed out of the Health Subcommittee last week, a few of those bills are headed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee tomorrow as part of a massive markup of legislation tackling everything from health care to broadband. Meanwhile, more states are writing their own plays to take on drug prices.

FDA grants Ayvakit go-ahead as first approved ISM therapy

Blueprint Medicines Corp. won a label expansion from the U.S. FDA for Ayvakit (avapritinib) to treat adults with indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM). First cleared in January 2020, the drug is a kinase inhibitor for the treatment of PDGFR-alpha exon 18-mutant gastrointestinal stromal tumors and advanced systemic mastocytosis. Designed to inhibit KIT D816V, the primary underlying driver of the disease, Ayvakit is the first approved therapy for ISM. Shares of the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm (NASDAQ:BPMC) were trading midday at $58.90, up $2.65.

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