BEIJING – CAR T therapy developer JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. raised another $100 million this week after securing $90 million in series A round in 2018. The funds will continue to go toward its lead program, JWCAR-029, a CAR T-cell product targeting CD19 that is now in a phase II study.

C4 Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on destroying disease-causing proteins via degradation, has closed a $170 million financing intended to help move four cancer candidates into the clinic by the end of 2022.

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.

Tel Aviv-based Alpha Tau Medical Ltd. raised $26 million in a series B financing. The round was led by previous investors, Savit Capital, Medison Ventures, and Ourcrowd, as well as new private and family office investors hailing from North America and Israel. The new funds will be used to continue trials of the company's Alpha DaRT (Diffusing Alpha Radiation Emitters Therapy) alpha-radiation cancer therapy for solid tumors and expand manufacturing facilities.

Athira Pharma Inc. closed on an $85 million series B financing designed to advance its small molecule, NDX-1017, into a phase II/III trial for treating Alzheimer’s disease later this year. The company is using positive data generated last year from its phase Ia/b trial in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease as a springboard to the clinic.

LONDON – With results of its first phase I trial imminent, inflammasome specialist Nodthera Ltd. has raised $55 million in a series B round, providing funding for phase II proof-of-concept studies and to advance a second, brain-penetrant, compound to the clinic.

The $65 million that Hotspot Therapeutics Inc., of Boston, raised will help advance its lead programs to the clinic, including protein kinase C antagonists for Th2 and T-reg-driven autoimmune disease and S6 kinase antagonists for rare metabolic disease.

Due to launch in the second half of this year, Rallybio Inc.’s phase I/II study testing RLYB-211 for prevention of fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) will begin with experiments in men, said Steve Uden, one of the company’s three founders. “The good news is, we can confirm the safety and the pharmacology of this concept in male volunteers before having to start a clinical trial in pregnant mothers,” he told BioWorld.