Orsobio Inc. has closed an oversubscribed $67 million series B financing, the proceeds of which will be used to accelerate development of its mitochondrial protonophore portfolio for the treatment of obesity and associated metabolic disorders.

Artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery company Noetik Inc. has closed on an oversubscribed $40 million series A financing round. The company plans to use the money to expand its atlas of human cancer biology with its in vivo CRISPR platform to advance a pipeline of cancer therapeutics to the clinic. In describing its approach, the company said that making a genuine impact on drug discovery requires computational capabilities to understand and simulate disease biology at the patient level, identifying the right targets and matching them with the right therapies.

Cumulus Oncology Ltd. is in the thick of raising a $50 million series A round as its model of sourcing novel drug targets emerging from academia, shaping them up for clinical development, and spinning them into startups, gathers pace. At the same time, Nodus Oncology Ltd., the first spinout created around an acquired asset, has just reached in vivo proof of concept with its lead DNA damage response inhibitor, and it, too, is looking to raise a series A to take the program through to the end of phase I.

Kytopen Corp. has received a phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of $1.6 million from the NIAID/NIH to support preclinical studies of its engineered natural killer (NK) cells. The funding will be used to conduct in vivo preclinical studies, which will be conducted by Charles River Laboratories

Abata Therapeutics Inc. announced it has received an equity investment from Bristol Myers Squibb to support the development of its Treg cell therapy products. Their investment supports Abata's continued advancement into the clinic, with trial initiation imminent for ABA-101 in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). Abata obtained FDA clearance for a first-in-human study of ABA-101 in patients with MS in July.

Kalm Therapeutics Inc. disclosed a $700,000 oversubscribed closing of its seed round, which will be used to complete regulatory activities outlined in Kalm’s pre-IND meeting with the U.S. FDA, fund personnel and transfer the company’s patch production to a manufacturer.

Kano Therapeutics Inc. announced it has secured $5 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to date to $7.1 million. The company plans to use the funding to begin internal pipeline development of ex vivo genetic medicines based on kilobase gene insertion, expand its existing therapeutic collaborations to initiate externally driven preclinical programs, and scale its production capacity.

Halda Therapeutics Inc. announced it has secured an additional $126 million in funding in a series B extension, bringing its total funding to date to $202 million. The company expects its lead molecule HLD-0915 to enter a phase I trial in the first half of 2025 for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).