It’s a first for Larry Miller. In his 30 years of working in pharma, he has never run a company that didn’t have a pack of near competitors scrambling to develop a therapy. “Not even close,” he told BioWorld. Miller, the CEO of Apnimed Inc., just saw the company close on a $25 million series B to help drive its lead program, a once-daily, oral obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) therapy, into a phase III registrational trial.

Zenas Biopharma LLC launched on March 23 as a U.S. funded cross-border biotech company targeting autoimmune diseases in China. The company, headquartered in Miromar Lakes, Fla., is founded and funded by Tellus Bioventures LLC and Fairmount Funds Management LLC.

Eliem Therapeutics Inc. is old-fashioned in the useful ways. The company is going after extremely large indications, including chronic pain and major depression. “We’re really passionate about these large markets,” Eliem President and CEO Bob Azelby told BioWorld. “These patients live in the shadows… There’s so many people suffering.”

Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have used a gene therapy approach to treat pain by specifically suppressing the Nav 1.7 ion channel in the spinal cord, both preventing and reversing pain in several animal models with distinct underlying reasons for pain.

Bionaut Labs emerged from five years in stealth mode raising $20 million to develop Bionauts, microrobots designed to deliver therapies to treat brain disorders. The financing will support the company’s therapeutic program in glioma through preclinical development and further research and development in Huntington’s disease.

RNA has “huge potential” as a therapeutic modality and is beginning to deliver on that potential. But “manufacturing RNA has issues in production, delivery and performance,” Thomas Barnes told BioWorld. Barnes is the CEO of startup Orna Therapeutics LLC, which has the goal of addressing those issues with oRNA, an engineered form of circular RNA.

Asalyxa Bio Inc. has closed on an oversubscribed seed financing of more than $2 million designed to advance its lead candidate, ASX-100, into the clinic in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

CAJICA, Colombia – China’s Anticancer Bioscience, a company focused on developing precision oncology medicines, has raised ¥66 million (US$10.2 million) to expand its small-molecule and natural product screening libraries and move two programs into IND-enabling studies.

Covicept Therapeutics Inc., a young San Diego-based company focused on developing a small molecule to inhibit the replication and spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other RNA viruses, has launched with $2.3 million in seed funding from European VC firm Forbion. The company, spun out of research at the University of California, San Diego, aims to initiate its first clinical study in the middle of 2021.

Boston-based Nirogy Therapeutics Inc.’s $16.5 million series A round is meant to enable a pipeline of small-molecule drugs targeting the solute carrier family of transporter proteins (SLCTs) embedded in the cell membrane, and let the firm bring its front oncology runner to the clinic in 2022.