Researcher, serial entrepreneur and investor Gregory Verdine has helped Fogpharma Inc. bring in a $178 million series D financing. The company plans to use the proceeds to develop its lead candidate, FOG-001, a direct beta-catenin inhibitor, which is expected to enter clinical development in an oncology indication.

Therapy delivery and the physicians who administer them are keys in CG Oncology Inc.’s drive to develop bladder cancer treatments. The company, which just closed an oversubscribed $120 million series E financing to continue on the development path, has its lead oncolytic immunotherapy, CG-0070, intravesically delivered via a catheter, in the clinic.

Momentum is building at Jnana Therapeutics Inc. The firm has raised $107 million in a series C round and banked another $50 million up front from a new drug discovery and development pact with Roche Holding AG, which could potentially deliver significant near-term milestones and more than $2 billion in future milestone payments. It also commenced recruitment onto a first-in-human study of its lead drug candidate, JNT-517, an inhibitor of the phenylalanine transporter SLC6A19, which is in development for phenylketonuria.

Zenas Biopharma LLC has raised $118 million in a series B round to support a global phase III trial of its lead asset as well as other immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases in its pipeline. The study, expected to begin in 2023, will evaluate obexelimab for the treatment of patients with immunoglobulin G4-related disease in late 2022.