Galux closed a ₩42 billion (US$29 million) series B round Feb. 10, led by Yuanta Investment to bring AI-driven “rational design” to the protein drug development process, already heavily influenced by human engineering. 

Galux closed a ₩42 billion (US$29 million) series B round Feb. 10, led by Yuanta Investment to bring AI-driven “rational design” to the protein drug development process, already heavily influenced by human engineering.

Galux closed a ₩42 billion (US$29 million) series B round Feb. 10, led by Yuanta Investment to bring AI-driven “rational design” to the protein drug development process, already heavily influenced by human engineering. 

Lixa Pty Ltd. has formed a partnership with the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership and announced a AU$28 million (US$20 million) series B round to take Neox-121 to the clinic to fight antimicrobial resistance.

Genentech Inc. is paying $200 million up front and up to $1.5 billion in milestone payments to license one of Suzhou Sanegene Bio Inc.’s RNAi programs. Metabolic and autoimmune-focused Sanegene did not disclose specifics around the licensed candidate, except that it was derived from its LEAD (Ligand and Enhancer Assisted Delivery) platform.

Neuropsychiatry specialist, Exciva GmbH raised €51 million (US$59.9 million) in a series B round to fund a phase II/III trial of Deraphan, a combination therapy for treating agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Mediar Therapeutics Inc. has announced an oversubscribed $76 million series B financing to support its novel anti-fibrotics through clinical studies. The funding will also be used to advance MTX-439 into phase I for the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD)-associated fibrosis.

Wife-and-husband team, J. Jean Cui and Y. Peter Li, launched Blossomhill Therapeutics Inc. in mid-2020 to focus on next-generation, macrocyclic inhibitors against oncology targets. The couple had planned to take some time off to rest and do a little traveling, but then the pandemic hit. “This was a great time [to start a new company],” Cui told BioWorld. “Nothing to do but reading and thinking.”

Vyriad Inc. has announced the closing of a $25 million final tranche to its series B financing, bringing the total series B round to $85 million. This additional funding will support first-in-human testing of VV-169, Vyriad’s in vivo CAR T candidate, in patients with relapsed or treatment-refractory multiple myeloma.

Things once done in laboratories can now be done with computers and AI, said Kim Woo-youn, CEO and cofounder of Hits Inc. “We live in the age of ‘digital alchemy,’” Kim told BioWorld, describing how AI is shifting some drug discovery processes from physical to virtual spaces.