Liquid biopsy startup Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. has raised $257 million in a series B round led by Casdin Capital and Section 32. The funds will be used to finalize the design of its first product, Cancerseek, conduct a trial to support U.S. FDA approval and prepare for commercialization.

Mantra Bio Inc., of San Francisco, plans to take its new $25 million series A financing and advance its pipeline and partnering efforts for engineering targeted exosome vehicles. The company platform integrates computational approaches, wet biology and robotics to leverage exosome diversity and enable rational design of therapeutics for a range of tissue and cellular targets.

Nura Bio Inc., a company working to discover and develop new neuroprotective medicines, has closed a $73 million series A financing that President and CEO Alpna Seth said would help her team advance a multitarget pipeline, initially led by an inhibitor of the sterile alpha TIR motif protein 1 inhibitor (SARM1).

HONG KONG – Looking to boost its R&D capacity, China’s Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. launched an IPO on July 22 that raised ¥1.7 billion (US$240 million) on Shanghai’s STAR market. Shares (SSE:688336) almost doubled in value on the first day of trading, closing at ¥54.10, for a gain of 92%.

Indigo Diabetes NV is working to develop a next-generation continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that would be much simpler and easier to use routinely, potentially making it more useful for a much larger population. It has just raised a €38 million ($44.5 million) series B financing to support that effort.

DUBLIN – Versant Ventures is committing $35 million in series A funding to Bright Peak Therapeutics Inc., which is developing a pipeline of engineered cytokines that are produced using a novel chemical synthesis technique rather than the recombinant methods that have underpinned more than four decades of biotechnology development.