Dark genome miner Enara Bio Ltd. has closed a $32.5 million series B that will see the lead program targeting the first of a novel class of cancer antigens it has discovered through to the clinic. Enara calls these cancer antigens “dark antigens” (the name is trademarked). It says they can be found in solid tumors irrespective of the immune phenotype, and are often expressed at high prevalence across multiple different tumors.
Integrated Biosciences Inc. has closed a $17.2 million seed financing to support its work combining synthetic biology and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven small-molecule drug discovery to produce next-generation therapeutics targeting age-related diseases.
Immunotherapy company Cartherics Pty Ltd. raised AU$15 million (US$10.3 million) in an oversubscribed series B round that will support the first clinical trial for lead chimeric antigen receptor natural killer therapy CTH-401 for ovarian cancer, and to expand its pipeline to include other diseases. Cartherics CEO Alan Trounson told BioWorld that the funds raised will take Cartherics through to mid-2026, and the phase I Australian trial in ovarian cancer will begin in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Loqus23 Therapeutics Ltd. has closed a £35 million (US$43 million) series A financing, with the aim of supporting its work developing small-molecule somatic expansion inhibitors for the treatment of Huntington’s disease and other triplet repeat disorders.
Cartherics Pty Ltd. has raised over its target of AU$15 million (US$10.3 million) in an oversubscribed private financing round. Funding will support a clinical trial for CTH-401, the company’s lead cell therapy for ovarian cancer, and expand its pipeline to include other diseases.
Spanish VC firm Asabys Partners has closed its second fund at €180 million (US$201.3 million), to be invested in seed to series B rounds in 12 to 15 biotech, med-tech and digital health companies.
In one of the largest private rounds raised by an Italian biotech, Genespire Srl has closed a €46.6 million (US$51.88 million) series B, enabling it to lay the ground for a phase I/II clinical trial of its lead program, GENE-202, and to further develop its proprietary lentiviral vectors. The vectors are designed to be applicable to a range of liver-related metabolic disorders and, as its first indication, the company intends to treat methylmalonic acidemia, a serious genetic condition that results in impaired metabolism of certain amino acids and lipids.
Genespire Srl has closed a €46.6 million (~$52 million) series B financing to support its work developing off-the-shelf gene therapies based on immune shielded lentiviral vectors (ISLVs) for pediatric patients with genetic diseases.
Vironexis Biotherapeutics Inc. has come out of stealth mode, disclosing that it has more than 10 product candidates it’s been developing over the last three years. The therapies are built on the company’s AAV-based platform, Transjoin, which is designed to have patients' livers express bispecific antibodies that bind to both CD3 on T-cells and various targets on tumor cells.