Money on the Move: Auron, Frontera, Immunocore and More Reel in New Funds

20 Jul 2022
www.biospace.com
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Auron Scores $48M to Identify AI-Based Cancer Targets Frontera Scoops Up $160M for AAV Gene Therapy Tech & Manufacturing Medical Microinstruments Scores $75M for Robotic Microsurgery OSE Raises Another $300 M for University of Oxford Startups Immunocore Raises $140M to Fuel Oncology & Infectious Disease Pipeline Money came from a variety of sources this week. Binding letters of intent, private placement financing, rights offerings and regular VC funding rounds are paving the way for gene therapy manufacturing, melanoma treatments, robotic microsurgery and long-haul COVID therapy. Auron Scores $48M to Identify AI-Based Cancer Targets Massachusetts-based Auron Therapeutics is starting off strong with $48 million in Series A financing. The biopharmaceutical company targets dysregulated differentiation and cellular plasticity for treating cancer. The funding will help Auron advance its most unique aspect: a machine-learning computational platform that identifies novel drug targets. By targeting cellular plasticity, the platform is designed to identify differentiation pathways that have been taken over by cancer cells. Rather than attacking tumor cells like traditional cancer treatment methods, Auron’s approach drugs the hijacked pathways to stop cancer cells from proliferating. Auron’s plan is to bring newly discovered drugs to the clinical stage, either as monotherapies or combination therapies. “The novel targets identified using Auron’s platform may enable completely innovative approaches to treating cancer that are complementary, rather than competitive, with existing therapeutics,” Briggs Morrison, M.D., independent chairman of the board said. Frontera Scoops Up $160M for AAV Gene Therapy Tech & Manufacturing Gene therapy company Frontera Therapeutics dominated its Series B funding round with $160 million, thanks to investors such as Boyu Capital, Sequoia China, OrbiMed and Creacion Ventures. The massive cash infusion came with a second exciting announcement: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted Frontera’s Investigational New Drug application to start a first-in-human clinical trial for FT-001, a gene therapy to treat a rare genetic retinal disease that causes vision loss. In addition to supporting FT-001, the money will advance Frontera’s APEX technology & manufacturing platform. The platform is an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene expression system that makes gene therapy development more efficient and expands gene therapies to new areas of treatment, such as ophthalmology, hematology, neurology and metabolic diseases. Medical Microinstruments Scores $75M for Robotic Microsurgery Italy-based Medical Microinstruments S.r.l. Inc. (MMI)’s Series B financing was a success, raising $75 million. The cash will help advance its robotic microsurgery mission of performing surgery in veins, arteries, nerves and lymphatic vessels as small as 0.3 mm in diameter. The first priority for the $75 million will be to continue commercialization efforts for MMI’s proprietary Symani Surgical System in Europe, where it received CE mark in 2019. The Series B cash will also help MMI expand into the U.S. and Asia-Pacific areas. The company hopes to conduct a pivotal study with its machinery and is aiming for an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA. OSE Raises Another $300 M for University of Oxford Startups Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), an independent company that partners with the University of Oxford to fund potential businesses, raised £250 million (approximately €294 million/USD$300 million) on Monday. The money came from an array of international investors and brings OSE’s total funding to about £850 million (€1 billion/USD$1.02 billion). The new funds will support OSE’s portfolio of around 40 businesses. As these businesses mature, the company will offer larger amounts of money to later-stage businesses in life sciences, health tech and deep tech. So far, OSE has supported more than 80 companies, taking two of them to IPO and drawing more than £1B from other global investors. In April, OSE joined Sanofi Ventures and GV in supporting OMass Therapeutics with a $100 million Series B financing. “Our companies are making remarkable breakthroughs from cancer, heart failure and infectious diseases to climate change, food security and quantum computing. Over the next few years, we expect these companies will continue to make important progress; with our ongoing efforts and the support of our shareholders, we look forward to helping them deliver impact and returns,” OSE CEO Alexis Dormandy said. Immunocore Raises $140M to Fuel Oncology & Infectious Disease Pipeline Commercial-stage biotech company Immunocore announced a private placement financing on Monday. In the transaction, Immunocore sold around 3.7 million shares to private investors, raising about $140 million in capital. Immunocore already has plans for the money. The cash will fuel its oncology and infectious disease treatment pipelines, including advanced cutaneous melanoma drug tebentafusp and assets targeting MAGE-A4 and PRAME, genes which, when overexpressed, are associated with cancer. The sizeable private placement, in conjunction with expected profits from KIMMTRAK, a treatment for metastatic uveal melanoma, is expected to be sufficient to fund Immunocore’s operating plan through 2025.
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