Bright Peak Therapeutics Inc. has raised $90 million in a series C financing. Proceeds will be used to accelerate a pipeline of next-generation immunotherapies and advance BPT-567 into a phase I/IIa trial.
Three years ago when Keting Chu pondered the name for a new biopharma company that would fold in infectious disease assets from Novartis AG, she looked out over her West Coast backyard. “I was looking for a name that made you think of California,” she told BioWorld. She nixed the idea of incorporating redwood trees into the name, but then she saw the blue jays flying around those trees and thought, “that’s a beautiful bird.” Hence, Chu founded and became CEO of Bluejay Therapeutics Inc., first raising $20 million through a series A in June 2021 and a $41 million series B in August 2022. On May 9, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company closed a $182 million series C round, with plans to accelerate development of lead compound BJT-778 to treat chronic hepatitis D virus, a condition for which there are no approved therapeutics in the U.S.
Memo Therapeutics AG has added a further CHF20 million (US$22 million) to its series C, bringing the total for the round to CHF45 million and enabling the company to expand the phase II trial of its lead program, AntiBKV, in neutralizing BK virus infection in immune compromised kidney transplant recipients.
The bifunctional antibody approach continues to pay off for Zenas Biopharma Inc., which banked an upsized $200 million series C preferred stock financing led by SR One along with NEA, Norwest Venture Partners and Delos Capital. Enavate Sciences and Longitude Capital participated significantly as well.
Sionna Therapeutics Inc.’s approach with small molecules in cystic fibrosis (CF) yielded the Boston-based firm an upsized and oversubscribed $182 million series C financing. The company is working on drugs that could fully restore the function of the CF transmembrane conductance regulator protein by stabilizing the first nucleotide-binding domain (NBD1). Four compounds are expected to enter the clinic this year – three NBD1 stabilizers and one ICL4 modulator.
Halia Therapeutics Inc. has, its CEO confidently asserts, taken an atypical road to building its infrastructure and financing. The Lehi, Utah-based company just completed a $30 million series C financing to further develop its lead asset, a selective and orally bioavailable first-in-class NLRP3/NEK7 inflammasome inhibitor.
Accent Therapeutics Inc. has completed a $75 million series C financing to support progression of its lead programs through early clinical development.
Carthera SA received an additional €4.5 million (US$4.9 million) from investors to take its series B funding round to €42 million despite a tough fundraising environment for med-tech companies. Frédéric Sottilini, CEO of Carthera, told BioWorld that the strong investor interest was testament to their confidence in the company’s Sonocloud technology for brain disorder treatment.
With one program in the clinic and another not far behind, Generate Biomedicines Inc. raised $273 million in a series C financing to advance its generative biology platform. It is one of the largest venture capital (VC) rounds for a U.S. company in 2023. Funds will go toward advancing the Somerville, Mass.-based company’s 17 pipeline programs, including the filing of multiple IND applications in 2024.
Star Therapeutics Inc. brought on board six new investors in its oversubscribed $90 million series C round, raising the company’s total funding to more than $190 million since its founding in 2018 to advance in-house drug discovery efforts via formation of portfolio companies. Since emerging from stealth in early 2022, Star has launched two aptly named companies, Electra Therapeutics Inc. and Vega Therapeutics Inc., with plans to unveil additional ventures arising from its antibody discovery efforts.
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