Dyno Therapeutics Inc, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, has raised $100 million in a Series A financing round to expand its technology platform for designing adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for gene therapies. The company is using artificial intelligence to improve the performance of capsids, the cell-targeting protein shells of AAV vectors.
MiNA Therapeutics Ltd has entered into a research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co to develop candidate drugs using technology for restoring normal cell function by activating gene expression. MiNA’s small activating RNA (saRNA) technology will be used to research up to five drug targets selected by Lilly.
The French vaccine company Valneva SE has raised $107.6 million from an initial public offering of shares on the US Nasdaq market, enabling it to accelerate development of candidate vaccines to prevent Covid-19 as well as Lyme disease. The company also has a prophylactic vaccine in development against the chikungunya virus, which is prevalent in Africa, Asia and India. The company’s American Depositary Shares began trading on Nasdaq on 6 May.
Valneva is also listed on Euronext Paris.
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.