Finance, Grants, Deals

A topical treatment for diabetic macular oedema is poised to enter Phase 3 development following the closing of a $57 million Series C financing round for the developer, Oculis SA of Switzerland. The treatment, OCS-01, is an eye drop formulation of dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, which if approved, would be the first topical treatment for a retinal oedema.

Mogrify Ltd has raised an additional $17 million in venture capital bringing the total generated for its Series A financing round up to $33 million. The proceeds will be used to advance programmes in immuno-oncology and ophthalmology as well as in vivo reprogramming therapies for retinal degeneration. Mogrify has developed a direct cellular conversion technology that enables researchers to transform any mature human cell type into any other without going through a pluripotent stem cell state. This is a new approach to drug discovery and development. 

Technology that integrates clinical trial data from patients with dementia and machine learning has received financial support from public and private funders in the UK. The company responsible for the technology is Cumulus Neuroscience Ltd (formerly BrainWaveBank) of Belfast, Northern Ireland. On 4 May, it announced receipt of £6 million from the Dementia Discovery Fund, the Future Fund and the charity, LifeArc.

A new US company with technology for developing tissue-targeted gene therapies for multiple diseases, has launched with $140 million in venture capital financing and collaboration income from AbbVie Inc. Capsida Biotherapeutics Inc is based on technology developed by Viviana Gradinaru and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology in the US.

Adcendo ApS, a Danish company founded in 2017 to develop antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology, has raised €51 million in a Series A financing – the largest Series A round for a Danish biotech company. Adcendo is developing ADCs directed against a cell surface receptor which is understood to be overexpressed on several non-epithelial cancers including sarcomas, glioblastomas and subsets of acute myeloid leukaemia. Expression is restricted in healthy individuals.

A new biotech company has been launched in the UK to develop medicines for cancer and inflammatory disease by targeting fibroblasts. Mestag Therapeutics Ltd was founded by a team of five fibroblast experts and has received seed financing of $11 million from SV Health Investors and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

A German radiopharmaceutical company has raised €90 million to complete development and commercialise a radionuclide therapy for cancer as well as build its oncology pipeline. ITM Isotopen Technologien München AG is conducting a Phase 3 trial of Lu-Edotreotide in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, which are rare tumours of the pancreas and parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Anavo Therapeutics BV, a new venture capital-backed company, has been launched in the Netherlands with seed capital of €20 million to investigate the development of drugs targeting phosphatases. Phosphatases are enzymes which, together with kinases, regulate the activity of signalling pathways in the body. But until recently, they have been largely unexplored as a target for therapeutics.

Forbion Capital Partners has announced the final close of a new fund which will invest in late-stage European assets developing therapies for high medical need. The Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund I closed at €360 million, having only been launched in July 2020. Investors included Pantheon Ventures, the European Investment Fund, and Eli Lilly and Co, amongst others.

Alchemab Therapeutics Ltd of the UK has raised £60 million in a Series A round to advance a drug discovery platform that involves identifying naturally protective antibodies in individuals who show unexpected resistance to disease. The financing round was led by RA Capital Management, with participation from five other investors including SV Health Investors and the Dementia Discovery Fund.