LONDON – Healx Ltd. has raised a $56 million series B after demonstrating its artificial intelligence-driven drug repurposing platform can systematically uncover treatments for rare diseases.

HONG KONG – Kobiolabs Inc., a microbiome-based venture from Seoul, South Korea, has secured a ?26.6 billion (US$22.2 million) investment. Founded in 2014, the venture has achieved ?193 billion of enterprise value.

LONDON – Mogrify Ltd. raised $16 million in the first close of a series A that it expects to at least double before closing the round in the next 12 months.

Aytu BioScience Inc., of Englewood, Colo., said it entered into definitive agreements with institutional investors Altium Capital and Armistice Capital for the purchase and sale in a private placement of $10 million of series F convertible preferred stock and warrants to purchase common stock.

Even priced at a bottom-of-range $20, shares of Vir Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ:VIR) fell 30% to $14.02 in the first day of trading after the infectious disease specialist priced a $142.9 million IPO, intended to back its development of medicines targeting hepatitis B virus, influenza A, HIV and tuberculosis. The company, led by former Biogen Inc. CEO George Scangos, is largely owned by Arch Venture Partners and Softbank's Vision Fund.

Medicenna Therapeutics Corp., of Toronto, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, said it filed a short form prospectus, which has been received by the regulatory authorities in each of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, in connection with the marketed offering of units. 

HONG KONG – Upin & Co. Ltd., a fund and asset management company headquartered in London, plans to invest a total of KRW2 trillion (US$1.7 billion) over three years in the South Korean biopharma industry. The U.K. company will use a European fund and human resources network to organize the K-Bio Medical Development Fund (KBMDF), which will include funds of KRW300 billion for the first round, KRW700 billion for the second, and KRW1 trillion for the third round.

Nicox SA, of Sophia Antipolis, France, which is developing a nitric oxide-donating platform, said it amended its bond financing agreement with Kreos Capital and has drawn down an additional €4 million (US$4.4 million) of debt under the bond financing.

Cygnal Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup devoted to developing new cancer and immunotherapy drugs, has raised $65 million from Flagship Pioneering to advance research in a field it is calling "exoneural biology" in an effort to deliver relief via the peripheral nervous system. The company is led by Pearl Huang, a veteran of Roche Holding AG and Glaxosmithkline plc. Calling exoneural biology "a new way to look at something that has always been there," she said Cygnal's platform has uncovered "new drivers of disease that are both profound and actionable."

In the third quarter, global biopharmaceutical companies collectively raised more than $12 billion from public and private transactions. Year to date (YTD), the sector has generated $41.5 billion, according to BioWorld data, putting it on track for a $55 billion haul for the year.