When the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shut down travel and conferences starting in the first part of 2020, the general lament was that the lack of face-to-face interaction would hamper biopharma companies’ ability to secure deals and investments. Instead, the opposite happened. Now, coming off two years of record-breaking financing, the biopharma sector is facing an inevitable correction, though a handful of venture capital panelists suggested there’s room for optimism.

Meccellis Biotech Group SAS reported closing an $8.25 million series B funding round to launch its biological implant technology on the US market. The exercise was supported by investment worth $5 million from Ocean Participations SAS alongside new funds from Volney Development SAS, Nouvelle-Aquitaine Co-Investissement SAS and the Poitou-Charentes business angel network Synergence Invest SAS.

Rgenta Therapeutics Inc.’s $52 million in a series A money will let the RNA-focused firm pursue its small-molecule drug efforts “for the next two or three years,” as candidates in cancer and neurology make their ways toward the clinic, said co-founder and CEO Simon Xi. “We’ll go where the science leads us,” he told BioWorld, adding that the cash on hand is sufficient to complete a phase I study.