Tune Therapeutics Inc. launched with $40 million in initial financing and plans to pursue both rare and complex disease indications with a series of epigenetic editors that employ CRISPR-Cas9 DNA recognition to modulate gene expression in a targeted fashion, without introducing potentially problematic DNA strand breaks or changes to the genetic code.
Apollo Health Ventures raised $180 million for a new venture capital fund focused on biotechnology companies developing therapies for age-related diseases. It may also invest in healthtech and digital health opportunities, but the latter constitute a minority pursuit for an investment team that is building up capabilities and expertise in disease biology.
DUBLIN – A meaty licensing deal with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is as good a time as any to unveil a new corporate identity. Nykode Therapeutics AS, the Norwegian immunotherapy firm formerly known as Vaccibody, is banking $30 million up front, another $20 million as an equity investment, and could earn up to $875 million more in development and commercial milestones across a multiproduct deal to develop vaccines for cancer and infectious disease.
DUBLIN – Sanifit Therapeutics SA has found a taker for its phase III calcification inhibitor for kidney dialysis patients, SNF-472, in the shape of Vifor Pharma AG, which is acquiring the Spanish company outright for €205 million (US$231 million) up front, up to €170 million in potential clinical development, regulatory and market access milestones, as well as undisclosed commercial milestones.
Avilar Therapeutics Inc. emerged from stealth with a $60 million seed round and plans to apply a targeted protein degradation technology to a large swath of extracellular proteins associated with disease.
Chroma Medicine Inc. emerged from stealth with $125 million in series A financing and high ambitions to rewrite the rules of genomic medicine by modulating the epigenetic status of target genes in order to switch expression on or off and thereby achieve therapeutic outcomes.
Acelyrin Inc. closed a $250 million series B round and, at the same time, unveiled a licensing deal with Affibody AB, involving an interleukin-17A (IL-17A) inhibitor, izokibep, which it is now testing in a pivotal trial in uveitis. Solna, Sweden-based Affibody is getting $25 million up front and could earn up to $280 million more in regulatory and sales-based milestones, as well as tiered royalties, ranging from high single digits to low double digits in percentage terms.
DUBLIN – Sisaf Ltd. has exercised an option on an Italian preclinical program to treat a rare bone disorder, autosomal dominant osteopetrosis type 2, with an siRNA molecule, which it will deliver with its in-house Bio-courier technology.
Marengo Therapeutics Inc. is opening up a new front in the war on cancer by selectively deploying a tumor-infiltrating subpopulation of T cells, which can be activated by a newly identified, antibody-based mechanism. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company is taking forward a scientific concept that has been germinating for several years at founding investor and company creator ATP, which has now launched the firm with an $80 million series A round. Marengo is gearing up for a first clinical trial in 2022. “It’s a new chapter in T-cell biology,” CEO Zhen Su told BioWorld.
DUBLIN – As its name suggests, Glycoera AG aims to kickstart a new era in protein glycoengineering, and it has closed a CHF45 million (US$49 million) series A round to further its ambition of developing biologic drugs with defined glycosylation profiles that are an intrinsic aspect of their mechanisms.
