Company	Venture funding news	Use of proceeds
Seres Health; Cambridge, Massachusetts	Nestle Health Science, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nestle, was the sole investor in a $65m Series D preferred stock financing. Seres previously raised $65m since its founding in 2010, including a recent $48m Series C round (scripintelligence.com, 3 December 2014).	The company is developing drugs that treat disease by restoring the function of a dysbiotic microbiome. Seres will use its Series C and D cash to push its lead drug candidate SER-109 into Phase III for prevention of the recurrence of clostridium difficile infection. The money also will be used to advance other drug candidates into the clinic, including programs in infectious, metabolic and inflammatory diseases.
Aduro Biotech; Berkeley, California	Eleven new investors funded Aduro's $51.4m Series D preferred stock financing, including OrbiMed, Janus Capital Management, funds managed by Franklin Advisers, Jennison Associates on behalf of certain clients, Foresite Capital Management, certain private investment funds advised by Clough Capital Partners, and other healthcare investors. The Morningside Group and other prior Aduro investors also supported the Series D round, which brought the company's total funding to date to $106.4m.	Aduro's new capital will fund ongoing development of the company's immuno-oncology pipeline, including a 240-patient Phase IIb clinical trial for CRS-207 in combination with GVAX Pancreas in the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer. CRS-207 is Aduro's lead drug candidate from a proprietary platform of live-attenuated double-deleted (LADD) Listeria monocytogenes strains that are engineered to initiate an innate immune response and drive an adaptive immune response. GVAX Pancreas comes from Aduro's vaccine platform. The LADD platform has been licensed to Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Biotech for prostate and lung cancers (scripintelligence.com, 30 May and 20 October 2014). Janssen also licensed GVAX for prostate cancer.
CytomX; South San Francisco, California	Pfizer Venture Investments led CytomX's $20m Series C round with participation from prior investors Third Rock Ventures, Canaan Partners and Roche Venture Fund. The Pfizer venture fund's parent company paid $25m up front plus preclinical financing and up to $610m in milestone fees in 2013 to partner with CytomX on the development of antibody-drug conjugates for cancer (scripintelligence.com, 6 June 2013).	CytomX is developing Probody therapeutics, which are antibodies that remain inert in healthy tissue, but are activated in the tumor microenvironment. CytomX will use its Series C funds for clinical development of Probodies and Probody-drug conjugates against cancer immunotherapy checkpoint targets. The company also will apply its Probody technology to bi-specific antibodies and engineered T cells. Bristol-Myers Squibb committed up to $1.2bn to CytomX in May under an immunotherapy agreement (scripintelligence.com, 28 May 2014).
Symic Biomedical; San Francisco, California	Lilly Ventures led a $15m Series A round that included investments by Den Danske Forskningsfond, Mitsui Global Investment, Ally Bridge Group, InCube Ventures, Purdue Foundry Investment Fund, Mission Bay Capital, QB3 Partners and individual investors.	Symic is developing compounds that function like proteoglycans, which are macromolecules native to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Symic's molecules function similarly to proteoglycans, which play a critical role in maintaining tissue function and healing upon injury or in chronic diseases. The company will use its Series A cash to take its two lead compounds into the clinic in acute and chronic diseases with unmet needs. Symic, which has raised $17.8m to date, also said it will collaborate with Nordic Bioscience in Denmark on the US company's osteoarthritis program. Nordic will provide development services in exchange for undisclosed service fees and equity, but Symic will retain development and commercialization responsibilities.
Clementia Pharmaceuticals; Montreal, Canada	Clementia added $10m to its Series A round, which now totals $32.5m, with additional investments by prior funders OrbiMed Advisors and BDC Venture Capital. The company also established a US subsidiary in Newton, Massachusetts.	The venture capital will fund Clementia's development of palovarotene, a retinoic acid receptor gamma agonist, for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive (FOP). The compound is in Phase II development for FOP, a rare genetic disease characterized by episodes of soft tissue swelling and abnormal bone formation.

Biotech venture capital off to a $659m start in 2015

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