LONDON – Human challenge specialist Open Orphan plc has raised £12 million (US$14.6 million) in a placing to accelerate development of COVID-19 challenge study models, to meet demand from vaccines and therapeutics developers worldwide.

BEIJING – Androgen receptor (AR)-related disease specialist Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd., of Suzhou, China, raised $240 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on May 22 by issuing 92.3 million shares at HK$20.15 apiece. The IPO was oversubscribed by 551 times, showing the city’s biotech fever.

The $65 million that Hotspot Therapeutics Inc., of Boston, raised will help advance its lead programs to the clinic, including protein kinase C antagonists for Th2 and T-reg-driven autoimmune disease and S6 kinase antagonists for rare metabolic disease.

Rapid Micro Biosystems Inc. scooped up $120 million in a series C financing led by Ally Bridge Group, with participation by Endeavor Vision and existing investors Bain Capital Life Sciences, Longitude Capital, Xeraya Capital and Asahi Kasei. The Lowell, Mass.-based company has earmarked the funds to expand the global footprint of its contaminant testing platform for biopharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing and for new product development.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Boston, brought in a $215 million series D financing to support development of its COVID-19 antiviral, which is designed to inhibit the viral RNA polymerase enzyme, a key element in RNA virus replication.

HONG KONG – New York and San Diego-based Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has gained $20 million in a series A financing round to support a Chinese joint venture called Zentera Therapeutics.

Due to launch in the second half of this year, Rallybio Inc.’s phase I/II study testing RLYB-211 for prevention of fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) will begin with experiments in men, said Steve Uden, one of the company’s three founders. “The good news is, we can confirm the safety and the pharmacology of this concept in male volunteers before having to start a clinical trial in pregnant mothers,” he told BioWorld.