Checkmate Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., completed an $85 million series C to continue developing CMP-001, a differentiated Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist, for treating anti-PD-1-refractory melanoma and to study additional indications that include front-line melanoma and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
BEIJING – Three-year-old Asia-focused startup Everest Medicines Ltd. closed one of the biggest financing rounds in China’s health care market this year, adding $310 million to its war chest. The firm is aiming to advance its late-stage assets in-licensed from global partners to the China market soon.
American depositary shares in CAR T-focused Legend Biotech Corp. (NASDAQ:LEGN), offered in a red hot IPO at $23 each, took off Friday, rising 60.9% to close at $37 per share. Other offerings June 5, a buoyant day for U.S. markets after a surprising drop in unemployment, raised $154 million for cellular trafficking specialist Applied Molecular Transport Inc. and $90 million for Calliditas Therapeutics AB, the developer of an oral formulation of the corticosteroid budesonide.
TORONTO – Vancouver, B.C.-based Sonic Incytes Medical Corp. is giving MRI a run for its money assessing chronic liver disease following a successful, CA$3.5 (US$2.6 million) seed round. That brings total funding to CA$8 million (US$5.92 million) for a hand-held ultrasound device that quantifies liver disease using 3D tissue sampling and analysis in approximately five minutes in a doctor’s office.
Boston-based startup Cerevasc Inc. scooped up $43.9 million in a series A round that was led by Perceptive Xontogeny Venture (PXV) Fund and Aton Partners LLC. The funds are earmarked to support a first-in-human trial of the company’s Eshunt system for the treatment of hydrocephalus, as well as subsequent clinical studies to support regulatory approvals.
San Diego-based Autobahn Therapeutics Inc.’s $76 million series B round will let the firm advance lead candidate ABX-002, a thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist therapy for multiple sclerosis and adrenomyeloneuropathy, a rare genetic disorder, plus a portfolio of central nervous system programs that leverage the company’s brain-targeting chemistry platform.
DUBLIN – Lycia Therapeutics Inc. raised $50 million in series A funding from founding investor Versant Ventures to take forward yet another novel concept in targeted protein degradation. The new company, which will be headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, is building on the work of Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, who has invented bifunctional structures called Lytacs – lysosomal targeting chimeras – which target extracellular or circulating proteins for internalization and lysosomal degradation by tethering them to lysosome targeting receptors at the cell surface.
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