Money on the Move: April 21 – 28

29 Apr 2021
www.biospace.com
Gene TherapyAntibodyCell TherapyIPOAcquisition
Versant Ventures Swiss VC Versant Ventures launched its newest biotech spinout fund, Versant Venture Capital VIII with $560 million in the purse. With additional closes of a $140 million booster fund and a $250 million later-stage opportunity fund, Versant now manages $4.2 billion in assets. The company will primarily look to build companies de novo through its Discovery Engines, about 60 in-house scientists in four Versant teams located in North America and Europe that work independently to validate academic findings, the basis for company formation. Excientia Ltd. A mere 55 days after expanding its Series C to $100 million, Oxford-based Exscientia brought in a whopping $225 million more in a Series D round. Using AI to design drugs, it has advanced two molecules into clinical trials with over 20 more programs waiting in the wings. CEO Andrew Hopkins said the funds “allow us the freedom to continue to scale both our platform and pipeline.” Boundless Bio In an oversubscribed Series B, Boundless Bio raked in $105 million to advance multiple ecDNA-directed programs into the clinic along with its companion diagnostics. As part of the financing, Jakob Love, Partner at Nextech, will join the Boundless board of directors. A “Next-Gen Precision Oncology” company, Boundless is developing therapies against extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in aggressive cancers. ecDNA are a primary driver of gene amplification and copy number heterogeneity in cancer, which is in tumors part of the uncontrolled cell grown often involves certain genes overproducing proteins and chromosomes being duplicated. Arch Oncology After a presentation of positive preclinical data on its anti-CD47 antibody, Arch took in a $105 million Series C. AO-176 blocks CD47’s signal telling microphages to “eat this, not that” to target tumor cells over healthy ones. The therapy is positioned to improve the safety profile of rival anti-CD47 candidates by proving a lower binding to normal cells and negligible binding to red blood cells. It also directly kills tumor cells, giving it a leg up on the competition. Currently in Phase I/II trials for select solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, the drug is being tested as a monotherapy and in combination with chemo drug paclitaxel. Funding will be used to advance the candidate through the clinic. Molecular Partner Filing to list on the Nasdaq Global Market, Securities and Exhange Commission and the SIX Swiss Exchange, Molecular Partners is aiming for a $100 million IPO. Funds raised will go toward supporting the company's work in the development of protein-based treatments for COVID-19 and various cancers. With its proprietary DARPin molecular platform, the biotech develops candidates featuring multiple mechanisms of action to improve effectiveness and minimize toxicities of certain drugs. Molecular has partnerships with several drug companies, including collaborations with Amgen, Novartis and AbbVie. Centessa Pharmaceuticals Just two months out from its launch, Centessa is already eyeing a $100 million entrance onto the stock exchange. The company hit the ground running in February with $250 million in Series A funds and the merger of 10 private companies to operate under the Centessa umbrella as “asset-focused” companies. Each team focuses on a single program of pathway to enable development of multiple medicines at once. Centessa’s most advanced candidate, lixivaptan, is an oral non-peptide that works by selectively suppressing the activity of the hormone vasopressin at the V2 receptor being developed for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. Talaris Therapeutics Talaris is aiming to raise $100 million through an initial public offering. Talaris’ lead asset FCR001 is an investigational allogeneic cell therapy aimed at living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) recipients. The rights reverted back to Talaris when Novartis’ gene and cell therapy unit was dissolved in 2016. FCR001 has potential to help patients acquire or restore immune tolerance, which provides a number of opportunities for the drug. Gyroscope Therapeutics Gyroscope is hoping to bring in $100 million in its Nasdaq debut. Coming off a $148 million Series C just last month, the biotech will use the fresh funds to advance its investigational gene therapy. GT005 had positive interim data from its Phase II study in treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. The therapy provided sustained increases in vitreous Complement Factor I (CFI) levels in the majority of patients. Sagimet California-based Sagimet also filed for an IPO. The company, which is developing a therapeutic for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), plans to raise $75 million. In February, the company raised $80 million in a crossover financing. According to the company, it is “focused on developing a portfolio of internally-discovered, selective fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitors for the treatment of several diseases that result from the overproduction of the fatty acid, palmitate.” Ultivue With its last funding round topping out at $22 million nearly two years ago, Ultivue is back at it scooping up $50 million this week in its Series D round. The biotech works to “deliver innovative solutions to address the dynamic nature of tumor biology from precious tissue samples.” Ultivue’s proprietary technology enables advance views into tissue samples for precision medicine research to accelerate biomarker discovery and drug development programs. Seed Health This microbial sciences company announced it had closed a $40 million Series A financing round yesterday, which the company says will support upcoming category launches, clinical trials, digital health programs, microbial stabilization technologies, and expansion into international markets. CEO Ara Katz said, “We are inspired to steward this next generation of probiotics and microbiome-based innovations that will disrupt and forever change the global categories of health, hygiene, diet and self-care.”
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