With a $200 million oversubscribed and upsized series A round completed, Cargo Therapeutics Inc. will advance its autologous CD22 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, CRG-022, which has breakthrough therapy designation in the U.S. “The proceeds are critical for us,” said Gina Chapman, CEO of San Mateo, Calif.-based Cargo. “We will demonstrate manufacturability this year and kick off the pivotal phase II.”
Oricell Therapeutics Co. Ltd. raised $45 million in a series B1 round to expand in the U.S. market. RTW Investments LP and the Qatar Investment Authority led the financing, which followed the completion of a $125 million series B round in July 2022. Shanghai-based Oricell plans to use the new funds to support the clinical development of its lead candidates, including Oricar-017, in the U.S.
Chroma Medicine Inc. closed a $135 million series B round as momentum builds at one of the early movers in the emerging field of epigenetic editing. It’s little more a year since Cambridge, Mass.-based Chroma emerged from stealth by disclosing a $125 million series A round and a stellar line-up of company founders. “It’s not all that long ago, but we have made a huge amount of progress,” CEO Catherine Stehman-Breen told BioWorld.
Ophthalmic startup Eluminex Biosciences Ltd. closed a $40 million series B round to progress its pipeline of ophthalmic assets and recombinant human collagen technology. Eluminex’s pipeline includes multi-targeted antibody molecules for vision-threatening retinal diseases and an oral small molecule for rare inherited pediatric retinal dystrophies, but its lead asset, EB-301, is a biosynthetic cornea derived from recombinant human type III collagen.
Transthera Sciences Inc., a Nanjing, China-based company developing small-molecule therapies in cancer, inflammation and cardiovascular disease, raised ¥260 million (US$38 million) in a series D+ funding round to advance its first drug product.
Radiopharmaceutical company Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is acquiring a phase II actinium-based alpha-emitter radiopharma program for prostate cancer from Radiomedix Inc.