A two-year old biotech company based in San Francisco, US, completed a $400 million Series C financing round on 14 July to support the use of AI in discovering new molecules for drugs. Chai Discovery Inc is a private company which has been given a valuation of $3.8 billion by its investors which included Index Ventures, Kleiner Parkins, Sequoia Capital and Dimension Capital. The round was additionally supported by 15 other firms.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, well-know for its cystic fibrosis therapies, has turned to endocrinology as a strategy for growth with the acquisition of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc of San Diego, US. Announced on 6 July, the deal is valued at $10 billion, or about $8.8 billion net of the estimated cash on Crinetics’ balance sheet.
On 6 July, Novartis announced a new acquisition – this time potentially leading to a novel class of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The company is Myricx Pharma Ltd (Myricx Bio), located in Canary Wharf in London, UK and a spin-out of Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute. It has a preclinical portfolio led by two ADCs with novel payloads – small molecule inhibitors of the N-myristoyltransferase (NMTi) enzyme.
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