Aspen Neuroscience Inc. hopes to get into the clinic to test autologous neuron replacement in Parkinson’s disease with a $6.5 million seed round. The financing featured several established life sciences venture investors; it was led by Domain Associates and Axon Ventures and included Alexandria Venture Investments, Arch Venture Partners, Orbimed, and Section 32.
BEIJING – Tokyo-based biotech firm Heartseed Inc., which focuses on regenerative medicine, has closed a series B financing round to pocket $26 million that will go to its lead drug candidate, HS-001, for treating heart failure.
Allogene Therapeutics Inc., a South San Francisco-based company developing off-the-shelf allogeneic T-cell therapies for cancer, is taking a 25% stake in Notch Therapeutics Inc., paying the Canadian startup $10 million up front in an exclusive deal to research and develop new induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC)-based CAR T therapies. The partners will initially focus on developing next-generation treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), leukemia and multiple myeloma.
Century Therapeutics Inc. came out of stealth mode Monday with $250 million in funding commitments from lead investor Bayer AG, founding investor Versant Ventures and strategic partner Fujifilm Holdings Corp. to develop next-generation allogeneic cell therapies for cancer, based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
