Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx) secured $103 million in a series C fundraising round led by Cowen Healthcare Investments and other stars of the med-tech investment world. Participants included Northpond Ventures, Vensana Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Kern Capital, Sands Capital, PFM Health Sciences, Windham Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Innovatus Capital Partners, Catalio Capital Management, and others.
Panbela Therapeutics Inc. hit a speed bump with its phase I trial in the ever-challenging indication of pancreatic cancer (PC), as an independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) recommended that dosing be held for patients until more safety information is available about polyamine analog SBP-101.
Biopharmaceutical companies developing cancer therapies had a productive year with about 38% of the record 53 new medicines approved by the FDA targeting oncology indications. This was one of the contributing factors for the 21% growth in the valuation of the price weighted BioWorld Cancer index in 2020.