PYC Therapeutics raised AU$40 million of an anticipated AU$74 million (US$48.6 million) capital raise to advance three candidates, including lead candidate VP-001, which could potentially be the first treatment for retinitis pigmentosa type 11 (RP11), which causes blindness that begins in childhood and ultimately leads to legal blindness by middle age.
Techbio specialist Relation Therapeutics Ltd has raised $35 million in new seed funding, bringing total seed money to $60 million, as it advances development of its in silico/wet lab platform for identifying drug targets in the non-coding parts of the genome. The company is building a “lab in the loop” system where in depth ‘omics profiles of single cells from fresh patient tissues are analyzed by its machine learning engine to uncover the genetic basis of clinical phenotypes and identify novel targets.
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Tubulis GmbH has closed a hefty €128 million (US$139.4 million) series B2 round, more than double the €60 million it raised in its series B1 two years ago.
Atrogi AB is raising a €30 million to €35 million (US$32.9 million to $38.4 million) series B round after announcing positive clinical data for ATR-258, a novel beta-2 adrenergic receptor agonist that is being lined up as a potential first-in-class insulin-independent treatment for type 2 diabetes.
Asgard Therapeutics AB has raised €30 million (US$32.8 million) in a series A round to advance a novel approach to cancer immunotherapy, in which it is proposed to reprogram cancer cells into functional antigen-presenting dendritic cells in vivo, activating a host immune response against the tumor.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd has formed a partnership with seven other investors to form an investment fund partnership that plans to invest ¥5 billion (US$695M) in local biotech and med-tech companies in Shenzhen, China. The target fund will concentrate on local biotechs, including cell and gene therapy companies, as well as other industries, with 70% to be invested in the biomedical industry.
China’s Pegbio Co. Ltd. is planning a Hong Kong IPO to advance PB-119, its main glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist for diabetes nearing domestic approval, as it hopes to transition to an operating profit.