Company	Investors	Use Of Proceeds
Tricida Inc.; South San Francisco (ST)	Tricida raised $55m through its Series C round from new investors Longitude Capital (lead) and Vivo Capital, and returning backers OrbiMed, Sibling Capital Ventures and Limulus Venture Partners.	Proceeds will help fund development of lead candidate TRC101, which is in Phase I/II trials for chronic kidney disease. Including the current round, Tricida has raised $95m since its 2013 inception, including a $30m Series B round in March 2015. (Also see "BioNotebook: PhaseBio closes $40m Series C round led by AstraZeneca, plus five other VC financings" - Scrip, 13 March, 2015.)
Iconic Therapeutics; South San Francisco	Iconic said on Aug. 9 that it completed the final closing for its Series C round, which was first announced in January, bringing the total to $48.5m. Xeraya Capital joined existing investors MPM Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, H.I.G. BioHealth Partners, Lundbeckfonden Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management and Osage University Partners. (Also see "VC Round-Up: Microbiome Focused Lodo, T-Cell Firm Tmunity, And More" - Scrip, 15 January, 2016.)	The company is developing treatments for retinal diseases and cancer based on Tissue Factor biology. Iconic's new venture capital will be used to fund ongoing clinical trials and begin additional studies for lead molecule ICON-1 in the treatment of retinal diseases and ocular melanoma. The drug is a novel fusion protein that targets inflammation and angiogenesis, which leads to vision loss in age-related macular edema (AMD). A Phase I study in wet AMD has been completed and enrollment is complete for a Phase IIa trial in newly diagnosed AMD.
Ambrx Inc.; San Diego (ST)	Ambrx Inc., which is developing protein therapeutics known as bio-conjugates, raised $45mm in a late-stage financing round led by Apricot Capital and Northeast Securities Prosperity Healthcare Fund. Sinopharm Capital, Humanwell Healthcare Fund, and existing investors Fosun Pharma, HOPU Investments and Everbright Limited Healthcare Fund also participated.	The company will use the funds to further develop its Phase I asset ARX788 along with its pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and lead immuno-oncology program CD3-folate. After withdrawing its planned IPO in June 2014, the company was acquired by a consortium consisting of entities affiliated with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd., HOPU Investments, China Everbright Ltd.'s CEL Healthcare Fund, and WuXi PharmaTech Inc. (Also see "Ambrx Looks Across Pacific For A Secure Future" - Scrip, 26 May, 2015.)
Evofem Inc.; San Diego	UK-based Woodford Investment Management committed up to $25m to Evofem via a Series D preferred stock financing.	Evofem will use the money to enhance its clinical and commercial infrastructure and to add product candidates to its pipeline of non-hormonal, woman-controlled, on-demand and rapidly-reversible contraceptives. The company said in July that it filed a new drug application (NDA) with the US FDA for the non-hormonal vaginal contraceptive gel Amphora. (Also see "Keeping Track: FDA Nixes Medicure’s Aggrastat For STEMI, Approves Insys’ Syndros" - Pink Sheet, 10 July, 2016.) Evofem also has completed Phase III trials for the Nesterone Ring, a once-yearly contraceptive vaginal ring.
AvroBio Inc.; Cambridge, Massachusetts	Atlas Venture, Clarus Ventures LLC and SV Life Sciences co-led a $25m Series A round for the gene therapy company.	AvroBio will use the VC cash to accelerate clinical development of its two ex vivo gene therapy programs for Fabry disease and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which both are being evaluated in Phase I studies, and to expand its pipeline of rare disease and cancer treatments. Both therapies are one-time treatments.
Bioniz Therapeutics, Inc.; Irvine, California	Takeda Ventures Inc. and former Allergan Inc. Chairman and CEO David Pyott co-led a $13m Series A round for the startup with participation from Cota Capital and Joe Kani, Chairman and CEO of the medical device company Masimo Corp. Pyott has been named chairman of the Bioniz board of directors and Kani also is a board member.	Bioniz is developing first-in-class peptide therapeutics that selectively and simultaneously inhibit multiple cytokines to treat immuno-inflammatory diseases and cancer. The Series A capital will allow the company to advance its two lead drug candidates: BNZ-1, which selectively inhibits Interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL-9 and IL-15 for the treatment of HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM) and certain T cell leukemias, and the preclinical asset BNZ-2, which is a selective inhibitor of IL-15 and IL-21 for the treatment of celiac disease and other immuno-inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Bioniz's expertise in cytokine biology originates from work conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the company plans to begin a Phase I trial soon for BNZ-1 in conjunction with the NIH.
Dauntless Pharmaceuticals Inc.; San Diego (ST)	Sofinnova Ventures invested $12m in the startup's Series A round. Dauntless is headed by President and CEO Joel Martin, who previously served in the same position at Cebix Inc., another biopharma that was backed by Sofinnova. (Also see "$31m in new funds to help Cebix progress novel peripheral neuropathy candidate " - Scrip, 19 October, 2012.)	Series A funds will support work on Dauntless's first compound DP1038, which is in preclinical studies for endocrine cancers. The project will be formulated with Aegis Therapeutics LLC's Intravail intranasal drug delivery technology, to which Dauntless licensed rights in a concurrently announced alliance, which includes an option to license the technology for three additional candidates. Dauntless will develop each of its drug candidates in separate corporations. DP1038 will live under the first such unit, Dauntless 1.
Synthorx Inc.; San Diego (ST)	Synthorx raised $10m in a Series B round led by RA Capital Management and joined by Series A investors Avalon Ventures and Correlation Ventures.	The company specializes in synthetic biology for novel protein therapeutics. It will use the proceeds of its Series A financing for the development and scale-up of protein therapeutics that incorporate one or more synthetic amino acids and to nearly double its head count. The technology is based on discoveries that began in Floyd Romesberg's lab at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. Potential therapy areas that Synthorx may focus on include pain, metabolic conditions and infectious diseases.

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