Checkmate Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., completed an $85 million series C to continue developing CMP-001, a differentiated Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist, for treating anti-PD-1-refractory melanoma and to study additional indications that include front-line melanoma and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
San Diego-based Autobahn Therapeutics Inc.’s $76 million series B round will let the firm advance lead candidate ABX-002, a thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist therapy for multiple sclerosis and adrenomyeloneuropathy, a rare genetic disorder, plus a portfolio of central nervous system programs that leverage the company’s brain-targeting chemistry platform.
DUBLIN – Lycia Therapeutics Inc. raised $50 million in series A funding from founding investor Versant Ventures to take forward yet another novel concept in targeted protein degradation. The new company, which will be headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, is building on the work of Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, who has invented bifunctional structures called Lytacs – lysosomal targeting chimeras – which target extracellular or circulating proteins for internalization and lysosomal degradation by tethering them to lysosome targeting receptors at the cell surface.
In a big day of setting up IPOs for launch, the charge is being led by Royalty Pharma, a buyer of biopharmaceutical royalties and an industry funder, which is aiming at a $2 billion offering. That massive number is more than half of the total biotech offerings brought in through May.
Money raised through biopharma financings so far in 2020 is double the amount raised within the same timeframe of 2019, partly due to two large financings completed in May by Sanofi SA, which is working on candidates to treat or prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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