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Endpoints News

Disc Medicine claims PhII win for repurposed ex-Roche drug in rare blood disorder

When Disc Medicine closed a $62.5 million raise led by Bain Capital earlier this year, the biotech’s CEO John Quisel pointed to the stream of clinical readouts in blood disorders it is expecting as the impetus. Now, it’s outlining the first of those data — with an open-label Phase II trial providing what it calls

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Endpoints News

Acelyrin sets out for a 2021-sized IPO for California biotech’s PhIII drug

Drug licensor and developer Acelyrin revealed more of its IPO plans Monday morning, mapping out what could be one of the biggest biotech IPOs in the past few years if it raises $370 million by pricing at the high end of its proposed range. The California biotech aims to sell 20.6 million shares of common

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EndPoints News

Rare blood disorders biotech Hemab raises $135M, begins trek into clinic

Hemab Therapeutics, led by Alnylam vet Benny Sorensen and chaired by John Maraganore, has raised $135 million from a new crop of investors as it begins pushing its blood disorder programs into the clinic. Hemab’s Series B was led by Access Biotechnology, followed by Deep Track Capital, Avoro Capital, Invus, Rock Springs Capital and Danish

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Endpoints News

PROTACs to RIPTACs: Arvinas founder snags $76M for next bet, Halda Therapeutics

A leader in the protein degradation space, Yale’s Craig Crews, is back with another biotech, Halda Therapeutics. On Tuesday, the startup announced $76 million in funding to take forward a new technology out of Crews’ lab, called RIPTACs, or Regulated Induced Proximity TArgeting Chimeras. The 26-employee startup emerged from hid decades-long work on heterobifunctional molecules,

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Wall Street Journal

Biotech Startup Acelyrin Buys Drugmaker ValenzaBio in Stock Deal

Acelyrin said it acquired privately held ValenzaBio in an all-stock transaction but didn’t disclose further financial details of the acquisition. Acelyrin, which disclosed a $300 million venture financing in September led by Access Biotechnology, previously struck a deal with biotech Affibody AB to secure global rights to develop and commercialize a compound, izokibep, except in

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Endpoints News

Verona says second PhIII for COPD drug hits the mark, plans 2023 NDA filing

UK-based biotech Verona Pharma said Tuesday morning that its drug, ensifentrine, passed its second late-stage trial for the common lung disease COPD. In August, Verona reported the drug succeeded in the first of its two Phase III trials. Now, Verona will package together the new trial data in its approval filing to the FDA, which

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Wall Street Journal

Immunology-Drug Startup Acelyrin Raises $300 Million for Late-Stage Trials

Drugmaker Acelyrin Inc. has raised $300 million in new venture capital to run late-stage clinical trials of a drug that could treat certain forms of arthritis and other conditions and compete with top-selling medications. New investor Access Biotechnology led this financing for Acelyrin, which has secured more than $550 million in total venture financing. Acelyrin

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Endpoints News

Nimbus clinches $125M raise via big donor-backed private financing round following Bristol Myers’ TYK2 approval

The computational chemistry biotech, co-founded in 2009 by VC Bruce Booth, announced its most recent financing round Monday worth $125 million — Nimbus’ fifth big financing in the last seven years. The round includes two new investors: Bain Capital Life Sciences and SV Health Investors. Other previous investors tagged along, including Access Biotechnology, Atlas Venture,

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Endpoints News

Looking to run with Big Pharma, a radiopharma startup with backing from Atlas, RA thinks it has the chops to compete

Amid a renaissance in the field of radiopharmaceuticals, a growing chorus of biopharma players is rushing the stage to capitalize on tech breakthroughs. Biotech blue-chippers RA Capital and Atlas Venture, sensing an opportunity, are now setting up their own startup to challenge the big boys. Curie Therapeutics uncloaked from stealth Wednesday with $75 million in

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FierceBiotech

Nimbus raises $105M for multifront TYK2 clinical trial program

Nimbus Therapeutics has raised $105 million to put its allosteric TYK2 inhibitor through a clutch of phase 2 clinical trials. A syndicate of investors led by BVF Partners has come together to help Nimbus find out if its prospect lives up to that promise. Equipped with cash from new and existing investors including RA Capital

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The San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego startup DTx Pharma raises $100M for platform to treat rare diseases

DTx Pharma, a 15-employee San Diego biotechnology company pursuing a platform for creating RNA-based therapies to treat genetic drivers of rare diseases, said Monday that it has raised $100 million in Series B round of financing. The early stage company, which previously raised $10.6 million in a Series A round in January 2020, is pursuing

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Fierce Biotech

Merck inks $1.9B Pandion takeover to square up against Amgen, Lilly and Roche

Merck has struck a $1.9 billion deal to buy Pandion. The takeover will give Merck control of a pipeline of immune modulators led by a rival to IL-2 drugs in development at Amgen, Eli Lilly and Roche. Pandion went public last year, pulling in $135 million to fund the development of a pipeline led by

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FierceBiotech

Childhood cancer-focused Day One banks $130M for pan-RAF inhibitor

It’s been a busy year for Day One Biopharmaceuticals. Just nine months after debuting with $60 million to tackle childhood cancers, the company is topping up its coffers with a $130 million series B financing. The funds will bankroll development and launch plans for its lead program, a pan-RAF inhibitor it’s developing for children with

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STAT

Sanofi, aiming to speed MS treatment, to acquire Principia Biopharma for $3.68 billion

Sanofi said Monday that it is acquiring Principia Biopharma for $3.68 billion, giving the French drug giant full control over the multiple sclerosis treatment the companies share. The deal values Principia at $100 per share, a 10% premium over the company’s closing price Friday, but represents a 35% premium to the price of Principia’s stock

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Endpoints News

The man who led Gilead’s autoimmune pivot heads to Boston

Now Sundy is moving on. On Tuesday, he left Gilead to become the CMO of Pandion Therapeutics, a Boston biotech building “bifunctional” antibodies for inflammatory diseases. It was the technology that attracted him, Sundy said. The company was developing ways to not treat immune conditions across the entire body. Instead, they were building tethers to link immune-modulating

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STAT

Startup Spotlight: Aiming to speed precision cancer therapies to children

Day One Biopharmaceuticals — named for the conversations clinicians have with parents when they first tell them their child has cancer and how they hope to treat it — announced on Thursday its first financing and its first drug candidate. Backed by $60 million from Canaan, Access Biotechnology, and Atlas Venture, the 25-person startup has

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FierceBiotech

Day One debuts with $60M to change cancer care—starting with children

“There have been over 200 products approved by the FDA for adult cancers even in the last 20 years, but in the last 30, there have been less than 10 new drugs approved by the FDA specifically for children with cancer,” said Julie Grant, a general partner at Canaan Partners, who’s been working on a

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The Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn gene therapy pioneer Jim Wilson’s Passage Bio plans IPO

Philadelphia-based Passage Bio plans to raise as much as $125 million selling stock shares to the public through an initial public offering (IPO), the Philadelphia-based firm told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a public filing Monday. Passage Bio, based on gene therapy technology developed by University of Pennsylvania biotech pioneer James Wilson, says it

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FierceBiotech

Rare disease biotech Passage Bio nabs Deerfield veteran as CEO

Passage Bio is losing its interim chief executive and co-founder Stephen Squinto, Ph.D., as it brings in a venture capitalist veteran to the helm. The biotech will now be run by Bruce Goldsmith, who comes from Deerfield Management where he was a venture partner responsible for early-stage investments and also served as interim CEO at

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FierceBiotech

Quickfire megarounds tee Passage Bio up for gene therapy trials

Passage Bio has raised its second megaround of 2019. Months after breaking cover with a $115.5 million series A, the James Wilson-founded gene therapy startup has reeled in another $110 million to take several assets into the clinic while hustling other programs through preclinical studies.

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