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.

TYK Medicines Inc. made a strong debut on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE), raising HK$579 million (US$74.32 million) to commercialize its lead compound, EGFR inhibitor TY-9591, now in pivotal trials in patients with EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer.