LONDON – Mestag Therapeutics Ltd. has closed a hefty $45 million seed round to advance development of antibodies targeting activated fibroblasts, in the treatment of cancer and immune diseases.

With a special interest in neurological disorders, Hopstem Biotechnology Co. Ltd. closed a series A++ round to raise nearly ¥100 million (US$15.5 million) to advance hNPC-01, an off-the-shelf induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived human forebrain neural progenitor cell product to treat chronic conditions caused by stroke and traumatic brain injuries.

LONDON – Hemab ApS has closed a $55 million series A to take forward treatments for bleeding and thrombosis disorders based on antibodies in-licensed from Novo Nordisk A/S, where the newco’s founder, Johan Henrik Faber, previously led hemophilia drug research.

French biotech Pep-Therapy SAS is taking its potentially first-in-class cancer cell penetrating peptide technology into the clinic, after raising €5.4 million (US$6.4 million) in an extended series A funding round. The series A fundraiser initially brought in €2.6 million, but the extension brought in a further €1.6 million in equity from Anaxago, i&i Prague and Badge as well as a €1 million loan from Bpifrance.

PERTH, Australia – Suda Pharmaceuticals Ltd. saw its stock shoot up nearly 44% on the heels of an oversubscribed AU$3.65 million (US$2.71 million) capital raise after acquiring a new invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform for oncology.

DUBLIN – Poolbeg Pharma plc raised £25 million (US$35 million) in an IPO on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to pursue development of antiviral drugs. The company priced the offering at 10 pence per share, which implies a valuation of £50 million. Shares are due to commence trading on Monday, July 19.

Steven Roy, CEO of Convergence Medical Sciences Inc., has designed a low-cost device that boosts the number of patients on a single ventilator to four simultaneously. To do this, he is collaborating with Calgary-based consulting engineers, Exergy Solutions Inc., to take the international Red Dot design winner through the Health Canada approval process.

LONDON – Neuvasq Biotechnologies has launched with a €20 million (US$23.7 million) series A to take forward a new approach to treating neurological disorders by reversing age- or injury-related damage to the blood-brain barrier.

DUBLIN – Bacteriophage, like other viruses, can be viewed as complex molecular machines with two essential functions: infection and replication. The first involves the efficient injection into the host cell of their genomic payload; the second involves hijacking the host’s nucleic acid replication machinery to generate the functional and structural proteins needed to give rise to progeny viruses.