Company	Investors	Use Of Proceeds
Arrivo BioVentures LLC; Morrisville, North Carolina	Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC led a $49m preferred financing round with participation from Solas BioVentures Fund I LP, Rex Health Ventures and private investors. Arrivo's co-founders include Jed Black, Jazz's therapeutic area head for sleep, and the serial entrepreneurs Steve Butts and Bill Wofford.	Arrivo will access the capital it raised over a five-year period, during which time the company will acquire and develop four to six drug candidates. Wofford and Butts were involved in the management and sale of Aerial BioPharma LLC, which was acquired by Jazz for $125m up front in 2014; Neuronex Inc., whose intranasal diazepam was acquired in 2012 and abandoned last month by Acorda Therapeutics Inc.; and Addrenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was acquired by Sciele Pharma, a Shionogi & Co. Ltd. subsidiary, in 2009. A similar strategy is envisioned for Arrivo – selling drug candidates after they get to the clinical proof-of-concept stage. (Also see "Jazz pays $125m upfront for sleep drug" - Scrip, 14 January, 2014.) (Also see "Acorda completes Neuronex acquisition as diazepam nasal spray nears NDA" - Scrip, 21 December, 2012.) (Also see "Acorda Drops Epilepsy Candidate Once Central To Its Revenue Forecasts" - Scrip, 20 May, 2016.) (Also see "Sciele to acquire Addrenex for $29 million" - Scrip, 16 November, 2009.)
Nouscom; Basel, Switzerland	LSP and Versant Ventures co-led a €12m ($13.4m) Series A round.	The funds will support discovery and development of personalized cancer vaccines and tumor selective oncolytic viruses using the company's Endovax and Exovax technology platforms.
BioSight Ltd.; Karmiel, Israel	Arkin Holdings and Primera Capital invested $5m each in BioSight and existing investors, including Michael Ilan Management & Investments, will provide an additional $3m.	BioSight, which is developing chemotherapy prodrugs to reduce toxicity, will use its $13m to fund a Phase IIb clinical trial that will evaluate Astarabine in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The company's lead product combines cytarabine with the amino acid asparagine, and it has shown no significant drug-related side effects in an ongoing Phase I/IIa trial in Israel.
Agenovir Corp.; South San Francisco	Agenovir closed a $10.6m Series A round led by Data Collective with participation from Celgene Corp. and Lightspeed Venture Partners plus several individuals and other investors.	The company is using computationally engineered nuclease technology to develop novel antiviral therapies – a platform based on the work of bioengineering and applied physics professor Stephen Quake of Stanford University and the [Howard Hughes Medical Institute]. Agenovir will use the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas9 and other nucleases to disrupt intracellular viral DNA with the goal of disrupting and treating viral reservoirs that can't be addressed by available therapies.
PDI Therapeutics; San Diego	Avalon Ventures, via its "Community of Innovation" known as COI Pharmaceuticals, launched PDI Therapeutics to develop novel immuno-oncology therapies. PDI is the eighth company funded under Avalon's partnership with GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which was established in 2013 and expanded in November, to invest up to $10m each in new biotech companies. (Also see "UPDATE: GSK and Avalon commit $495m to startups" - Scrip, 24 April, 2013.) (Also see "FINANCE ROUNDUP: A New VC Fund, A $60m Collaboration Boost, And 14 Funding Rounds" - Scrip, 19 November, 2015.)	PDI stands for protein disulfide isomerase, which can help tumor cells avoid detection by natural killer (NK) cells and T cells. The company will develop inhibitors of specific PDIs as monotherapies and as part of combination regimens. As with other companies founded under the Avalon-GSK partnership, GSK will have an option to acquire PDI.
Ixaltis; Archamps, France	Ixaltis launched with €8m ($9m) from Irdinov, Ixo Private Equity, Principia, Sofimac and Pierre Olivier Goineau, president of France Biotech.	The French biotech firm will specialize in genito-urinary diseases, starting off with three molecules licensed from Sanofi, including Litoxetine IAX-001, which will advance in Phase II development for urinary incontinence.
Mitochon Pharmaceuticals; Blue Bell, Pennsylvania	Mitochon completed its second year of funding, totaling $1.6m from Ben Franklin Technology Partners and other investors.	The company will begin human studies for lead drug candidate MP101, an orally administered neuro-protective agent that targets the mitochondria. A second product candidate MP201 will be prepared for an investigational new drug (IND) submission to the US FDA. Targeted diseases include Huntington's, Rett syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
Thunderbolt Pharma Inc.; South San Francisco	Vitesse Biologics – a biotech incubator established under a joint venture between Baxalta Inc., Velocity Pharmaceutical Development LLC and the Mayo Clinic – launched Thunderbolt with a BAFF/APRIL dual antagonist program purchased from Astellas Pharma Inc. No financial terms were disclosed.	The BAFF/APRIL dual antagonists will be developed to treat B cell disorders, including systemic lupus erythematosus. Thunderbolt is the first company established under the Vitesse joint venture that was launched in mid-2015 with each of the three partners – Velocity, Mayo and Baxalta – taking different roles in newly created biotech companies' development programs from preclinical testing through commercialization. (Also see "Baxter creates Vitesse as early R&D engine" - Scrip, 3 June, 2015.)
Oncternal Therapeutics Inc.; San Diego	Two San Diego biotech firms – Oncternal Therapeutics Inc. and Tokalas Inc. – merged to form one company that will move forward under the Oncternal banner. No financial terms were disclosed.	The merged company will continue clinical development and begin additional studies for lead therapeutic candidates the anti-ROR1 monoclonal antibody cirmtuzumab and the small molecule ets-family transcription factor inhibitor TK216. A Phase I study in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is under way for cirmtuzumab with additional CLL, breast cancer and mantel cell lymphoma studies expected to begin this year. A Phase I study in Ewing sarcoma will begin soon for T216, but glioblastoma and prostate cancer studies also are planned for this year.

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