Rare disease specialist Atyr Pharma Inc. has completed a $76 million series E financing that it will use to further develop and advance its pipeline, led by an ongoing phase Ib/II trial of Resolaris (ATYR-1940) for patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).

Multivir Inc., a Houston-based gene therapy company taking a second swing at two adenovirus-based cancer therapies – one of which drove Introgen Therapeutics Inc. to bankruptcy – has filed to raise up to $70 million in a proposed IPO that will support the first part of phase I/II trials of both candidates.

A failure of Can-Fite Biopharma Ltd.'s lead candidate to achieve what the company called "any real effect" over placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis sent shares (NYSE:CANF) tumbling more that 60 percent to a 52-week low on Monday before closing at $2.20.

In the capital of digital sharing and over-sharing, Silicon Valley, contributing one’s whole genome to science in the name of fun and self-knowledge has never felt that controversial. Engineers share software code liberally every day on sites like GitHub and Bitbucket. Plenty of those same coders and their investors gleefully joined 23andMe spit parties back in the heady days before the Federal Trade Commission jumped in with a call to sanity. Silicon Valley is still over-sharing. Someone is literally live-streaming their walk from a train station to a bar on Twitter’s new Periscope app as I write. Superficially, it seems...

Vical Inc. is moving to expand its infectious disease portfolio by in-licensing a trial-ready antifungal from Astellas Pharma Inc. that could complement a DNA-based cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine on which the companies already collaborate.

Mucosis BV, a Dutch company developing mucosal vaccines that can be applied needle-free via the nose or mouth, is rapidly advancing toward clinical studies that could pave the way for the arrival of broad-based and durable protection from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Immunogen Inc. shares (NASDAQ:IMGN) climbed 16.8 percent to close at $8.69 Monday as Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. pledged $20 million up front plus potential milestones to license exclusive rights to use the company’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to develop and commercialize anticancer therapeutics for up to two undisclosed targets with an option on a third.

Semma Therapeutics Inc., a company developing a stem cell-based therapy for type 1 diabetes that could reduce or eliminate some diabetics' reliance on daily insulin injections, has closed a $44 million series A led by MPM Capital.

Immunogen Inc. shares (NASDAQ:IMGN) climbed 16.8 percent to close at $8.69 Monday as Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. pledged $20 million up front plus potential milestones to license exclusive rights to use the company's antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to develop and commercialize anticancer therapeutics for up to two undisclosed targets with an option on a third.