A vaccine company founded by the Medicxi investment group has raised $100 million in a Series B financing round to develop multivalent respiratory virus vaccines. The company, Vicebio Ltd, recently started a Phase 1 trial with its lead product, VXB-241, a bivalent vaccine targeting both respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV). The viruses affect elderly patients and those with weakened immune systems.
Novo Nordisk A/S has entered a collaboration with Korro Bio Inc of the US to develop a potentially new class of genetic medicines for cardiometabolic diseases. This includes new drugs for diabetes and obesity, medicines of which Novo already has a global market position. Announced on 16 September, the deal has a value of up to $530 million which covers upfront, development and commercial milestone payments. This is in addition to the financing of R&D for potential projects and royalties from any products that reach the market.
ImmunOs Therapeutics AG, a Swiss biotech developing candidate therapies for cancer, has raised $11 million in a Series C financing round to advance its lead clinical programme targeting solid tumours. The product, IOS-1002, is a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-based protein that block receptors in the innate immune system. The financing follows a Series B round that raised $74 million in 2022.
The latest financing was led by the existing investors Gimv, Pfizer Ventures, Mission BioCapital and BioMed Partners and supported by the new investor Double Point Ventures.
Flagship Pioneering, a Cambridge, US-based venture capital group, is to explore the potential for drug discovery of a new approach to cell biology under a collaboration with Pfizer Inc and tapping the scientific expertise of Quotient Therapeutics Ltd, a biotech it founded in 2022. Located in Cambridge, UK, Quotient is investigating somatic genomics which describes alterations in DNA among individuals, or differences in DNA between populations among the same species.
Navigator Medicines Inc, a new US biotech company with a focus on antibody therapeutics, has raised $100 million in a Series A financing round to develop a bispecific antibody for autoimmune diseases. Announced on 27 August, the funding round was co-led by Forbion of the Netherlands and RA Capital of the US. It will enable Navigator, a subsidiary of Sera Medicines LLC, to develop an in-licenced bispecific antibody targeting OX4OL, which is expressed on many antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells, and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), a regulator of immune cells.
Novartis is to increase its investment in RNA-based medicines with the start of a new company in Vancouver, Canada called Borealis Biosciences which will focus on kidney diseases. The company is being launched through a collaboration with the venture capital group Versant Ventures and will take over research projects and staff from Chinook Therapeutics Inc, an enterprise acquired by Novartis in June 2023. The transaction involves the divestment of Chinook, the allocation of funds to the new company, and a strategic research collaboration.
Two clinical stage biotech companies with drug discovery platforms based on artificial intelligence are to merge, creating a company with a portfolio of wholly-owned assets as well as collaborations with five big pharma companies. Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc of Salt Lake City, US, is to have a 74% stake in the new company, which will take the Recursion name and be led by Chris Gibson, the current Recursion chief executive. The partner is Exscientia Plc of Oxford, UK, a smaller AI company founded in 2017 to focus on small molecule drug design.
Five years after raising €30 million in a Series A financing round, Confo Therapeutics NV has completed another fundraising – this time for €60 million to advance a pipeline of therapies that modulate G-protein coupled receptors, one of the most difficult set of targets for drug development. The new round was led by Ackermans & van Haaren and included participation from the new investors Driehaus Capital Management and Quest for Growth.
Mission Therapeutics Ltd of the UK, which is developing therapies targeting mitochondrial dysfunction, has received $5.2 million in grant funding to progress its lead small molecule drug for Parkinson’s disease into early clinical development. The award comes from the Michael J Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK and follows the disclosure of promising data from healthy volunteers that the drug, MTX325, has a good safety profile and can penetrate the blood-brain barrier.
A venture syndicate led by Novo Holdings A/S, with participation from EQT Life Sciences, has raised $100 million for Asceneuron SA enabling it to advance a new product for Alzheimer’s disease. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Asceneuron is developing a small molecule drug, ASN51, that inhibits an enzyme implicated in the aggregation of proteins in the brain. This is thought to have application for both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.