Venture Capital Deals At A Glance
Company	Financing
Tentarix Biotherapeutics LP; San Diego and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	Versant Ventures and Samsara BioCapital co-led a $50m series A round that Tentarix announced on 14 October. The company is developing targeted, multifunctional, conditional biotherapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases. These antibody-based therapies may conditionally activate or inhibit specific cell populations. In cancer, they may activate only immune cells that kill cancer, avoiding immune cells that when activated may cause adverse events. Tentarix’s lead drug candidate has one subunit that targets the IL2R gamma receptor, a subunit that targets the IL2R beta receptor and other subunits that bind to cell surface proteins on a specific subset of T-cells.
Abalos Therapeutics GmbH; Dusseldorf, Germany	The German firm said on 14 October that its series A round, first announced in October 2019, has been extended by €32.5m to €43m ($50m) to support clinical readiness and accelerate its lead immuno-virotherapy candidates toward clinical proof-of-concept. (Also see "Abalos Raises €12M Series A To Develop Arenavirus-Based Cancer Therapies" - Scrip, 15 October, 2019.) Seventure Partners led the extension with participation from new and existing investors. Abalos will take its lead program into a Phase I/II trial in the treatment of solid tumors. The company is developing variants of the tumor-targeting lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus that are optimized to trigger a precise and directed immune response against distant metastases for long-term disease control.
Alto Neuroscience; Los Altos, CA	Alto came out of stealth mode on 14 October with $40m in seed and series A financing to leverage its AI-based brain biomarker platform for the development of precision psychiatry medicines. The company’s 11 clinical-stage assets include three in Phase IIa studies for major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder with Phase II data from each drug candidate expected by mid-2023. The platform evolved from work conducted in the Etkin Lab at Stanford University; Amit Etkin is Alto’s founder and CEO.
Axial Therapeutics, Inc.; Woburn, MA	Axial revealed a $37.25m series C round on 13 October, bringing total fundraising to date to $91.5m. The company will use the proceeds to advance AB-2004, a gut-restricted molecular therapy, beyond a completed Phase Ib/IIa trial for irritability in children with autism. Axial will also advance additional programs in the microbiome gut-brain axis, with drug candidates acting on new targets to mitigate the impact of metabolites and bacteria in the gut linked to neurological disease pathology, progression and symptoms. The platform is based on research conducted by Sarkis Mazmanian at the California Institute of Technology.
Anticancer Bioscience, Ltd. (ACB); Chengdu, China	Focused on synthetic lethality approaches to precision treatment of cancer, ACB said on 14 October that it secured an additional CNY68.4m ($10.6m) from new Chinese investors. The proceeds will fund preclinical development of the company’s two lead programs, known as MYC-synthetic lethal and contact inhibitor restoration, and to optimize and identify additional lead compounds. ACB plans to take two programs into the clinic in 2022.
Radionetics Oncology; San Diego	Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which went public in the US in 2018 to fund its development of nonpeptide therapeutics for rare endocrine diseases and endocrine-related tumors, said on 18 October that it formed Radionetics as an independently operated new company in partnership with the VC firms 5AM Ventures and Frazier Healthcare Partners. (Also see "Finance Watch: Summer Heat Extends To Biopharma IPOs With Nine In July, 45 This Year" - Scrip, 1 August, 2018.) Radionetics was established with $30m in initial financing to develop targeted nonpeptide radiopharmaceuticals for a broad range of cancers. The company’s platform uses nonpeptides as targeting agents to deliver radiopharmaceuticals to tumors expressing unique peptide receptors. Radionetics licensed the technology and 10 initial programs from Crinetics in a deal worth more than $1bn in milestone fees to Crinetics plus single-digit royalties.
Chance Pharmaceuticals; Hangzhou, China	Chance Pharmaceuticals announced completion of a $30m series C financing on 11 October, noting that the proceeds have been earmarked to continue development of its inhalation therapies. The group's lead candidate is CXF11, a version of Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease blockbuster Spiriva (tiotropium), delivered via Chance’s proprietary inhaler, which has been submitted for approval in China. The funds will also be used to initiate additional business collaborations and accelerate construction of a manufacturing facility. The company licensed a drug candidate from Aerami Therapeutics earlier this year. (Also see "Asia Deal Watch: Genexine Teams With KGBio In Immuno-Oncology, COVID-19 Therapy" - Scrip, 18 February, 2021.) The financing was led by new investor Lapam Capital with participation from other new backers, including CMS Capital and HEDA BioVenture and existing investor Guozhong Capital.
AUM Biosciences; Singapore	AUM said on 12 October that it closed a $27m series A round to advance its pipeline of next-generation targeted oncology therapeutics. Initially, the company plans to use the proceeds to start Phase II programs for CHC2014, a pan-TRK inhibitor licensed in May from South Korea's Handok Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and CMG Pharmaceutical, and its MNK 1/2 inhibitor AUM001. (Also see "Asia Deal Watch: Heartseed Licenses Lead Cell Therapy Candidate To Novo Nordisk" - Scrip, 8 June, 2021.) AUM001 was one of the therapies that formed the basis of a five-year partnership signed at the end of 2020 with China's Newsoara Biopharma Co., Ltd. to co-develop up to six oncology drugs in AUM’s pipeline. The series A was led by private equity funds including Everlife and SPRIM Global Investments.
Rejuvenate Biomed NV; Heusden-Zolder, Belgium; Schlieren, Zurich, Switzerland; and Luxembourg	Rejuvenate, which develops combination drugs for age-related diseases, said on 12 October that it raised €15.7m ($18.2m) in series B funding. The proceeds will be used to accelerate development of lead candidate RJx-01 in acute and chronic sarcopenia, a disease defined by the loss of muscle strength, quality and mass for which there is no approved therapy. The company, a resident of Johnson & Johnson’s JLabs incubator, will advance RJx-01 through a Belgian Phase Ib trial and an international multi-center Phase IIb study. It also will explore the drug (which is made up of two undisclosed compounds) in other diseases. Swiss biotech Rejuveron Life Sciences and Luxembourg-based Vesalius Biocapital led Rejuvenate’s series B round.

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