Company	Investors	Use Of Proceeds
Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. (AIS); Seattle, Washington	OrbiMed Advisors led a $48m Series A round with participation from Frazier Healthcare Partners and Alpine BioVentures, the latter of which founded AIS and provided seed funding.	The company is developing two different immunotherapy platforms – one that uses a single molecule to hit multiple targets in the immune synapse and another that could enhance the efficacy and persistence of cellular therapies. AIS signed an agreement that's worth up to $530m with Kite Pharma Inc. in November related to the cell therapy platform. (Also see "Former Dendreon CEO Gold's New Cell Therapy Business Partners With Kite" - Scrip, 8 November, 2015.)
Blade Therapeutics; San Francisco	Deerfield Management led a $45m Series B round with backing from Pfizer Venture Investments, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Prior funders MPM Capital and Osage University Partners also supported the Series B.	Blade will use the money to develop molecules that modify the pathobiology of fibrotic diseases. The company's platform is focused on rational design through crystal structures, which has revealed new insights into a difficult target for fibrotic diseases.
Rgenix; New York City	Novo A/S and Sofinnova Partners led a $33m Series B round with participation from the Partnership Fund for New York City, Alexandria Venture Investments and Conegliano Ventures LP.	Rgenix is using its proprietary miRNA-based target discovery platform to develop first-in-class treatments for cancers with serious unmet needs. The capital will fund clinical development of lead candidates RGX-104 and RGX-202. RGX-104 is a small molecule that reverses immune evasion and drug resistance by targeting immunosuppressive cells in the tumor microenvironment via an undisclosed novel pathway.
IFM Therapeutics; Cambridge, Massachusetts	Atlas Venture and Abingworth led a $27m Series A round that also was backed by Novartis AG.	IFM is developing therapies that modulate novel targets with the goal of enhancing innate immune responses in cancer or dampening innate immune responses that drive inflammatory diseases. The Series A proceeds will fund the company's first clinical trial for a selective activator of a novel undisclosed target in solid tumors.
Allecra Therapeutics GMBH; Munich, Germany	Delos Capital led a €22m ($24.5m) Series B round with participation from Forbion Capital Partners.	Allecra, which closed a €15m Series A round in 2013, is developing novel antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. The new capital will fund a Phase II clinical trial in the treatment of Gram-negative, hospital-based infections for lead drug candidate AAI202, which combines a beta-lactam antibiotic with a novel Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) inhibitor. It has been granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) status by the US FDA.
Applied Stemcell Inc. (ASC); Milpitas, California	HerMed Capital led a $19m Series D financing that also was backed by Ping An Ventures, Vi-Ventures and BioSciKin.	ASC will accelerate development of its pipeline, expand its gene-editing platform and strengthen its intellectual property position. The stem cell biology and genome-editing specialist will focus initially on monogenic blood disorders. (Also see "Orchid takes 20% of start-up Allecra in antibiotic alliance" - Scrip, 18 April, 2013.)
Mironid Ltd.; Glasgow, Scotland	Epidarex Capital led a €4.3m ($6.2m) Series A round with participation from the Scottish Investment Bank, on behalf of the Scottish Enterprise, and the University of Strathclyde.	The firm is developing drugs that modulate the activity of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) enzymes to treat degenerative kidney disease, major inflammatory diseases and cancer.

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