Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug discovery startup Protai Bio Ltd. raised $12 million in additional seed funding, bringing the total amount to $20 million that will see the company build out an oncology drug discovery pipeline derived from its AI proteomics platform.
Andera Partners and Novo Holdings A/S led a financing round which raised $25 million for Fire1 Ltd. and will accelerate the development of the company’s remote monitoring technology that improves outcomes for heart failure patients. Andera and Novo are new investors in Fire1 and were joined in the fundraising round by existing investors Gilde Healthcare, Gimv, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Lightstone Ventures, Medtronic plc, New Enterprise Associates and Seventure Partners.
The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Agency (MHRA) is to stop carrying out its own appraisals of drugs that are being reviewed by the U.S. FDA, the EMA or Japan’s PDMA, and will instead set up “global recognition routes,” through which companies can apply to place products on the U.K. market that have passed regulatory scrutiny elsewhere.
An investor has seen promise in First Wave Biopharma Inc.’s targeted, systemic gastrointestinal disease biotherapeutics, offering $4 million in a private placement as enrollment picks up pace in a phase II trial for the company’s lead candidate, adrulipase.
Seamless Therapeutics GmbH raised $12.5 million in seed financing to take forward a novel gene editing technology based on reprogramming recombinase enzymes.
Health Guard Biotechnology Inc. raised ¥294 million (US$43 million) in an IPO on the SME-focused Beijing Stock Exchange, with the funds going to push the development of its HPV vaccines.