Although collectively the large-cap biotech companies have failed to move the valuation needle this year, those innovative mid-cap public companies engaged in areas of research such as immuno-oncology, cell and gene therapies and CNS diseases have bucked the general trend. That is illustrated by the year-to-date performance of the BioWorld Drug Developers index, which has soared in value by more than 22%, well ahead of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has increased 15% in the same period. 

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Budding Taiwanese startup Elixiron Immunotherapeutics Inc. closed a $10.5 million series A1 financing to further expand its technology platform and drive its drug candidates toward clinical development.

PERTH, Australia – Following positive results across three different oncology clinical trial programs with its lead candidate, Veyonda, Sydney-based Noxopharm Pty Ltd. has secured a AU$26 million (US$18 million) funding facility from U.S. investors leading up to a proposed Nasdaq listing.

David Southwell, a seasoned pharma exec and CEO of newly funded Tscan Therapeutics Inc., called from a small, unadorned conference room on the Harvard campus to talk about his new company. He's used to being on the clinical development side, where the accommodations are a bit more posh, but nonetheless he's pleased to be investigating T-cell therapy for cancer patients.

LONDON - Oncolytic virus startup Theolytics Ltd. is looking to raise a series A round as it prepares to take its first product into phase I in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

HONG KONG – Singaporean biotech company Aum Biosciences Pte. Ltd. has in-licensed a potentially first-in-class PIM/PI3K/mTOR inhibitor from Inflection Biosciences Ltd., of Dublin and London, to develop it globally to treat a wide range of cancers.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a machine learning program that could score the risk of pancreatic cysts and recommend one of three treatment strategies – surgery, watchful waiting or discharge without follow-up – more accurately than current methods. The program could potentially reduce the number of unnecessary surgeries performed on pancreatic cysts with little to no potential of turning cancerous.