A promising but side effect-ridden phase III study by Novartis AG with oral imatinib in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) led Boston-based Aerovate Therapeutics Inc. to start exploring two years ago an aerosol form of the kinase inhibitor, and the project has won backing to the tune of $72.6 million in series A money.

LONDON – A breakthrough technology for generating fully human T-cell receptors (TCR) is set to deliver next-generation T-cell therapies for treating solid tumors, following the €66 million (US$78.3 million) series A funding of T-knife GmbH.

Adopting a new strategy in food allergies and others, South San Francisco-based Iggenix Inc. launched with a $10 million series A round to fund work that CEO Bruce Hironaka told BioWorld puts the company “at the front of the wave.” Companies in the allergy space generally “have not taken full advantages of the developments that we’ve seen in the biotech industry over the last 20 or 30 years,” he said.

CAPS Medical, of Netanya, Israel, closed a $3.5 million series A round led by Chasing Value Asset Management and the Los Angeles-based Israel Investment Fund Group. The new funds will be used to enable CAPS to undertake its first clinical trial for its minimally invasive, nonthermal plasma device for cancer treatment and further develop its portfolio for the treatment of solid tumors.

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).

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.

LONDON - The combined force of Belgian life sciences has been brought together in the launch of Exevir Bio BV, which arrives on the scene with a €23 million (US$27 million) series A and ready for a phase I study of its novel antiviral therapy in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.