StartUps and SMEs

The sixth annual edition of In Vivo’s Rising Leaders features entrepreneurs, academics, lawyers, regulators and innovators from around the globe, representing the forefront of creativity in health care.

Private Company Edition: ARCH raised more than $3bn for its eighth fund, Frazier added $630m to its public fund that also can back crossover rounds, DCVC’s third biotech fund totaled $400m and Asabys raised €180m ($200m) for its second fund. Also, Aktis closed a $175m series B round.

John Lepore, CEO of ProFound Therapeutics and CEO-partner at Flagship Pioneering, discusses the vast possibilities for the human atlas, the benefits of strategic partnering and knowing when to walk away from a project.  

BridgeBio spun out oncology assets in May to focus on rare diseases and now it has sliced off a few rare disease candidates for GondolaBio. Also, Avidity and Kymera closed follow-on offerings that grossed $345.1m and $225m, respectively, and Vandria extended its series A round to $30.7m.

With $150m in series A funding, the Versant- and Novartis-backed start-up is betting it can overcome the challenges to getting RNA medicines into the kidney.

The start-up launched last year with Phase III-ready upacicalcet, which has nearly completed two pivotal trials in secondary hyperparathyroidism and for which it has exclusive rights outside of Asia.

Halda will take its first RIPTAC molecule into a clinical trial in prostate cancer, offering a new small molecule modality in an indication where patients and doctors prefer oral drugs.

Private Company Edition: Symbiotic Capital emerged with a $600m-plus fund to provide credit for private and public companies, while venBio raised a $528m fund. Also, Outpace Bio raised $144m, Jade Biosciences launched with $80m and MBX Biosciences raised $63.5m.

The UK firm is weighing up its options for late-stage development of LEVI-04 after unveiling positive Phase II results of Phase II for the neurotrophin-3 inhibitor in moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis.

Deal Snapshot: The Swiss major has given Sangamo a cashflow injection in a deal to access two novel technologies to develop treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, including against tau for Alzheimer's.    

It remains extremely challenging to raise money for start-ups in the neuroscience space that still have little data but the commercial possibilities for those investors prepared to take a punt are huge.

UK microbiome specialist ProBiotix Health has combined its patented LPLDL probiotics strain with thiamine (vitamin B1) to create an convenient supplement ingredient for lowering cholesterol and supporting overall cardiometabolic health.

Private Company Edition: Venture capital investment has moved into a slower summer pace, or maybe just shifted to small- and medium-sized biopharma financings. In addition to Third Arc’s $165m series A round, Brenig raised a $65m series A and Confo’s series B totaled €60m ($65m).

Bioniq's latest “oversubscribed” funding round will finance the global expansion of its AI-powered personalized supplement offer, the firm says.

TRiCares SAS announced it raised $50m in series D funding from a single unnamed investor. The funding will support the company’s upcoming US early feasibility study and EU CE mark clinical investigation for its transfemoral tricuspid heart valve replacement system, Topaz.

Big biopharma is struggling to find the next generation of cancer immunotherapies, but the sector’s smallest companies might just have the platforms of the future.

Adding Oxford to its roster will help Apollo widen its net for potential first-in-class therapies, and connects with the university’s ambition to build world-beating spin-outs.

Sepranolone may have progressed positively through a Phase IIa trial but its potential to reduce tics has failed to tempt any of the 20 or so potential partners that the Swedish biotech spoke to about a licensing deal.

Flush with cash, the controlling stakeholder of Novo Nordisk’s life sciences investment arm is increasing its financing of other biopharma innovators.

Roman Thomas, co-founder and CEO of DISCO Pharmaceuticals, outlines how the company’s surfaceome technology could disrupt drug discovery in oncology.