LONDON – Epsilogen Ltd. has raised £30.8 million (US$41.5 million) in an oversubscribed series B, after its lead immunoglobulin E (IgE) program delivered positive results in a phase I in advanced solid tumors. The money is to fund a phase Ib trial of the product, Mov18 IgE – the first and only IgE antibody to have made it to the clinic – in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
After two years of developing its platform, Vesalius Therapeutics Inc. now has $75 million in its pocket from Flagship Pioneering to understand and treat the diseases that account for 90% of the world’s illnesses. To resolve this massive amount of biological and industry complexity, Doug Cole, Vesalius’ chairman and co-founder and Flagship’s managing partner, noted the distinction between illness and disease. “Illness is what bothers you, it’s the experience of being sick and what the doctor might find when you’re examined,” Cole told BioWorld. “Disease is the mechanistic problem with the biology underlying the illness.”
Teclison Ltd. has raised $5.9 million to support further development of its lead candidate, TEC-001, an agent designed to induce tumor necrosis and enhance immune checkpoint inhibitors in solid cancers with liver metastasis. Wtt Investment Ltd., the Taiwan-based family office of the late Taiwanese banker Tsai Wan-tsai, led the financing.
Biorchestra Co. Ltd. has raised ₩54 billion ($45.1 million) in its latest series C fundraising, which will boost the development of the company’s lead RNA-based candidate for treating neurodegenerative diseases. BMD-001 is Daejeon, South Korea-based Biorchestra’s antisense oligonucleotide candidate for treating Alzheimer’s disease.
Lepu Biopharma Co. Ltd. started trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday, raising HK$904 million ($115.9 million) in an initial public offering. Trading opened at HK$7.13 per share and slid to HK$6.70 by midday before closing at HK$7.13.