Money on the Move: December 15 – 21
These biotech companies made the nice list, earning them far more than a lump of coal. Here’s who snagged investor’s dollars this week.
Anaveon
This Swiss immuno-oncology player scooped up over $119 million in its latest Series B round, bringing in new board members, including one from Pfizer’s investment arm with it. Four years into the game, its lead program is running a Phase I/II study on its IL-2 agonist for patients with solid tumors, as well as jumping in on a parallel program to investigate its full potential. Its designed to overcome the dose-limiting side effects of traditional IL-2 approaches. Anaveon also has programs “harnessing the power of cytokines for therapeutic purposes.”
Mythic Therapeutics
Antibody-drug conjugates, ADCs are an increasingly popular cancer treatment that pairs antibodies with toxic agents that target tumors precisely. Mythic uncloaked with $103 million to make “safer and smarter” ADCs that can improve the therapeutic index and expand the role of the drugs against a broader range of disease. Without giving much by way of details, Mythic’s lead program is targeting lung cancer and “has the potential to drive a multi-fold expansion of the number of lung cancer patients eligible for treatment using ADCs.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront the urgent need for reliable, at-home solutions to health monitoring and testing. Seattle-based Tasso brought in a fresh $100 million to scale its operation for its decentralized health testing services and signature line of virtually painless blood collection devices. The devices are able to support remote patient monitoring for decentralized clinical trials, clinical research, and monitoring patients in remote populations.
Merging the power of artificial intelligence with human genomics, Verge believes its platform will revolutionize drug discovery for the most challenging diseases we face today. With big name investors like Eli Lilly and Merck’s investment fund, the San Francisco-based company landed $98 million in its Series B round. Its platform derives its genomic datasets from human brain tissue. Currently the company is focused on neurologic disease like ALS, Parkinson’s and frontotemporal dementia. Verge is supported by a three-year partnership already with investor Eli Lilly to discover new ALS targets.
V-Wave
Out of Israel and California, V-Wave is developing the shunt devices for the treatment of advanced heart failure. Already in clinical trials, last week’s $98 million Series C extension will take the Ventura Shunt through its clinical trials and onto submission for review. The shunt is easy to implant and has shown itself a durable way to improve quality of life for those suffering with heart failure, a disease oftentimes with a worse prognosis than many cancers.
NorthSea Therapeutics
This Amsterdam biotech is targeting NASH, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a particularly challenging disease to treat with currently no FDA approved therapies on the market. NorthSea’s $80 million Series C will advance development of its pipeline of clinical stage programs for both the chronic liver disease and other metabolic disorders, three of which are already in the clinic. Icosabutate is the lead candidate, with a Phase IIb study enrolled with NASH patients this year with preparations for a Phase III beginning in 2022. Interim results showed a significant reduction in inflammation and the biomarkers of liver injury.
Ambys is taking on liver disease from a new angle with its liver-cell production process. This week’s $47 million Series A extension will help the company complete its pre-IND checklist for AMI-918 in severe liver disease. The therapy produces healthy, high quality liver cells that function as healthy liver cells in the body at scale, which is the key. In sufficient quantity, these cells can support or even replace liver function in a failing liver. Ambys is targeting 2023 for its first Phase I/II trial.
Nodexus
Uncloaking with $30 million, Nodexus is on a mission to democratize biological tools with its NX One platform. NX One provides automated cell isolation for cell line and antibody development, CRISPR engineering and more. The company will offer affordable cell solutions spanning from the startup fresh out of the gate, to academic labs, and the largest pharma companies on the scene. The company will also use the Series A to build commercialization capabilities to meet “surging demand.”