Finance, Grants, Deals

A preclinical project designed to treat Huntington’s disease has received £35 million in Series A financing on early evidence that it can slow or even halt progression of the disease. Huntington’s is an inherited disorder that attacks areas of the brain that help control movement. The funding was awarded to LoQus23 Therapeutics Ltd, a biotech company based in Cambridge UK. The venture capital group Forbion led the round, alongside existing investors SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund and the Novartis Venture Fund.

Mabylon AG, Swiss biotech company developing new antibody technologies, has received grant funding of more than CHF 1.3 million ($1.54 million) to discover a new approach for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The funding for ALS is being provided by the non-profit groups Target ALS and the ALS Association, while that for IBD is coming from Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency.

Mabylon develops intrabodies which are antibody fragments expressed inside a cell that bind to specific proteins within that cell.

A privately held Italian company has raised $52 million to progress development of an in vivo gene therapy to treat methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), a genetic disorder that is manifest in early infancy. Genespire Srl is a 2020 spin-out of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, a cell and gene therapy research institute. The funds will support development of the company’s lead product, GENE202, up to a clinical Phase 1/2 trial.

A vaccine company founded by the Medicxi investment group has raised $100 million in a Series B financing round to develop multivalent respiratory virus vaccines. The company, Vicebio Ltd, recently started a Phase 1 trial with its lead product, VXB-241, a bivalent vaccine targeting both respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV). The viruses affect elderly patients and those with weakened immune systems.

Novo Nordisk A/S has entered a collaboration with Korro Bio Inc of the US to develop a potentially new class of genetic medicines for cardiometabolic diseases. This includes new drugs for diabetes and obesity, medicines of which Novo already has a global market position. Announced on 16 September, the deal has a value of up to $530 million which covers upfront, development and commercial milestone payments. This is in addition to the financing of R&D for potential projects and royalties from any products that reach the market.

ImmunOs Therapeutics AG, a Swiss biotech developing candidate therapies for cancer, has raised $11 million in a Series C financing round to advance its lead clinical programme targeting solid tumours. The product, IOS-1002, is a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-based protein that block receptors in the innate immune system. The financing follows a Series B round that raised $74 million in 2022.

The latest financing was led by the existing investors Gimv, Pfizer Ventures, Mission BioCapital and BioMed Partners and supported by the new investor Double Point Ventures.

Flagship Pioneering, a Cambridge, US-based venture capital group, is to explore the potential for drug discovery of a new approach to cell biology under a collaboration with Pfizer Inc and tapping the scientific expertise of Quotient Therapeutics Ltd, a biotech it founded in 2022. Located in Cambridge, UK, Quotient is investigating somatic genomics which describes alterations in DNA among individuals, or differences in DNA between populations among the same species.

Navigator Medicines Inc, a new US biotech company with a focus on antibody therapeutics, has raised $100 million in a Series A financing round to develop a bispecific antibody for autoimmune diseases. Announced on 27 August, the funding round was co-led by Forbion of the Netherlands and RA Capital of the US. It will enable Navigator, a subsidiary of Sera Medicines LLC, to develop an in-licenced bispecific antibody targeting OX4OL, which is expressed on many antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells, and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), a regulator of immune cells. 

Novartis is to increase its investment in RNA-based medicines with the start of a new company in Vancouver, Canada called Borealis Biosciences which will focus on kidney diseases. The company is being launched through a collaboration with the venture capital group Versant Ventures and will take over research projects and staff from Chinook Therapeutics Inc, an enterprise acquired by Novartis in June 2023. The transaction involves the divestment of Chinook, the allocation of funds to the new company, and a strategic research collaboration.

Two clinical stage biotech companies with drug discovery platforms based on artificial intelligence are to merge, creating a company with a portfolio of wholly-owned assets as well as collaborations with five big pharma companies. Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc of Salt Lake City, US, is to have a 74% stake in the new company, which will take the Recursion name and be led by Chris Gibson, the current Recursion chief executive. The partner is Exscientia Plc of Oxford, UK, a smaller AI company founded in 2017 to focus on small molecule drug design.