There’s a whole group of biotechs trying to create a tougher next-generation CAR T-cell therapy that could have a powerful effect on solid tumors after the technology’s first successes in blood cancer. One of those is London-based Leucid Bio Ltd., which has just raised £11.5 million (nearly US$16 million) in series A financing to develop next-generation CAR T therapies that are able to make it through to solid tumors and attack them.

Cerecin Inc. has raised $40 million in an oversubscribed round of financing, paving the way for a potential listing in South Korea. Proceeds of the financing will fund the expansion of the company’s current studies and support the planning and initiation of a global phase III study of its lead candidate, tricaprilin, in Alzheimer’s disease.

DUBLIN – Sofinnova Partners closed out its flagship Capital X fund at €472 million (US$550 million), providing further evidence that private equity investing in European biotechnology and medical technology remains in rude health. It represents, managing partner Graziano Seghezzi told BioWorld, one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in its 30-year history. “We went out and raised this fund in six months.”

D&D Pharmatech Inc., a Korean-American firm commercializing innovation from Johns Hopkins University raised $51 million in a pre-IPO series C round, which sets the stage for an IPO in Seoul early next year.

Abbisko Cayman Ltd. has raised $226 million through an IPO in Hong Kong, where it launched with an initial price of HK$12.46 (US$1.60) per share. The company, doing business as Abbisko Therapeutics, plans to use about a third of the proceeds for research and development of its lead candidate, ABSK-091, a targeted inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor receptor subtypes 1, 2 and 3 intended as a potential treatment for multiple solid tumors, including urothelial cancer, gastric cancer, cholangiocarcinoma and lung cancer.