On the heels of a $4.6 million series A round in December 2023, cell therapy company Rxcell Inc. is planning to raise another $15 million in 2024 to take its iPSC-derived photoreceptors to the clinic for retinitis pigmentosa and other degenerative diseases of the retina.
Building D&D Pharmatech Inc. has been a rollercoaster ride, according to CEO Seulki Lee. The U.S. and Korea-based biotech is on another ascent, having scored U.S. FDA fast track designation for its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) drug, ahead of its third attempt at a public listing.
Medicxi has made its first ever investment in China – and its biggest single commitment to date – putting $40 million into D3 Bio Inc. The investment by the London-based venture capital firm will accelerate development of D3’s lead program D3S-001, a second generation KRAS G12C inhibitor, which is in phase II development in advanced solid tumors.
“A biotech company cannot survive on ‘drug efficacy’ alone,” former Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) CEO Hyunsong Muk said recently, “because novel drug development is not just a scientific problem.” Financial toxicity is, in fact, a major obstacle for biotech companies trying to advance preclinical candidates to early stage clinical trials, Muk said at Novo Nordisk A/S’ Partnering Day and Symposium on April 4 in Seoul, South Korea.
China’s Visen Pharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. is targeting an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange with three rare endocrine disease therapies licensed-in from Denmark’s Ascendis Pharma A/S, including U.S. FDA-approved Skytrofa (lonapegsomatropin).
South Korean biosimilar-focused Alteogen Inc. said on March 27 that Chung Hye-shin, former chief strategy officer (CSO) and co-founder, sold 1.6 million of Alteogen shares for ₩316.4 billion (US$234.24 million) to foreign institutional investors.
Clarity Pharmaceuticals Ltd. raised AU$121 million (US$79.29 million) through a private placement that will fund the company’s radiopharma pipeline comprising targeted copper therapies out to early 2026.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd has formed a partnership with seven other investors to form an investment fund partnership that plans to invest ¥5 billion (US$695M) in local biotech and med-tech companies in Shenzhen, China. The target fund will concentrate on local biotechs, including cell and gene therapy companies, as well as other industries, with 70% to be invested in the biomedical industry.
PYC Therapeutics raised AU$40 million of an anticipated AU$74 million (US$48.6 million) capital raise to advance three candidates, including lead candidate VP-001, which could potentially be the first treatment for retinitis pigmentosa type 11 (RP11), which causes blindness that begins in childhood and ultimately leads to legal blindness by middle age.
China’s Pegbio Co. Ltd. is planning a Hong Kong IPO to advance PB-119, its main glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist for diabetes nearing domestic approval, as it hopes to transition to an operating profit.
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