Appia Bio Inc. raised $52 million in a series A funding round to bring forward a novel take on allogeneic cell therapy for cancer, based on a rare lymphocyte population, invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, which exhibit aspects of both NK cell and T-cell biology.
DUBLIN – Mina Therapeutics Ltd. continues to make progress in its long-term ambition to establish small activating RNA (saRNA) as a new therapeutic modality. The biotech has now entered a multitarget research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co., in which it is receiving $25 million up front and up to $245 million in development and commercial milestones per product.
DUBLIN – Michael Greve, one of Germany’s most successful internet entrepreneurs and investors, is personally committing €300 million (US$362 million) to building a portfolio of biotechnology firms focused on different aspects of aging. His investment vehicle, Kizoo Technology Capital GmbH, of Karlsruhe, has already provided seed funding to more than a dozen early stage firms. Greve is now ready to invest in follow-on rounds, particularly in four core companies he described as “category openers” in rejuvenation biotech. “We are really super focused, because there are so many things we could do,” he told BioWorld.
The allocation of capital to the build-out of next-generation gene therapies continues apace. Dyno Therapeutics Inc., a leader in applying artificial intelligence to advanced capsid engineering, raised $100 million in a series A round to fund its expansion and that of its Capsidmap platform.
DUBLIN – Danish startup Cytoki Pharma ApS raised $45 million in a series A round to take forward an engineered, long-acting version of interleukin-22 (lipidated IL-22), for development in inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBD).
Capsida Biotherapeutics Inc., a gene therapy startup focused on advanced capsid engineering to generate tissue-selective vectors, emerged from stealth with $50 million in series A funding and another $90 million in cash from a strategic collaboration and option agreement in neurodegenerative disease with Abbvie Inc.
DUBLIN – The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has reiterated its support for Astrazeneca plc’s Vaxzervia COVID-19 vaccine, following an interim analysis of a data review, which the agency’s Committee on Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) has conducted over the past two weeks.
DUBLIN – Isotopen Technologien München (ITM) AG raised €90 million (US$108 million) in debt financing to complete phase III development of its lead radiopharmaceutical, solucin, in gastroenteropancreatic-neuroendocrine tumors and to take forward several more preclinical pipeline projects.
DUBLIN – Anavo Therapeutics BV raised €20 million (US$24 million) in seed financing to fund the build-out of a platform that aims to drug the human phosphatome, or the ensemble of phosphatase enzymes that plays a crucial role in maintaining cells’ phosphorylation balance by removing phosphate groups from their target substrates.
Versant Ventures has closed three new funds with an aggregate raise of $950 million to allocate to the next wave of innovative startups across North America and Europe. The money is new, but everything else is more or less unchanged. “It’s the same strategy, same team, same geography, same operational model,” Versant chairman and managing director Brad Bolzon told BioWorld.
