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.
France-based Ipsen SA is to advance its rare disease portfolio with the acquisition of Memo Therapeutics AG of Switzerland whose lead product is a monoclonal antibody directed against a virus that can harm patients receiving kidney transplants. The antibody, potravitug, is still in clinical development but has shown a potential to neutralise the BK polyomavirus which can lead to graft loss and the failure of a transplant. The BK virus, also known as the Human polyomavirus 1, is a member of the polyomavirus family.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for Casgevy, a cell-based gene therapy for two blood disorders, making it available to individuals as young as two years. The disorders are sickle cell disease, a rare inherited blood disorder, and transfusion-dependent beta thalassaemia. Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) was first approved by the FDA in 2023 for children with sickle cell disease from the age of 12 years.
uniQure NV has raised $259 million from a public share offering on Nasdaq a little more than a week after receiving positive feedback from the US Food and Drug Administration for a marketing authorisation application for the gene therapy AMT-130. Proceeds from the offering were announced on 25 June. They will be used to advance the therapy, which has been developed to treat Huntington’s disease, towards commercialisation. The company is expected to file an application for an accelerated approval of the therapy during the third quarter.
TRIMTECH Therapeutics Ltd, which is developing small molecule drugs that target and degrade protein aggregates associated with neurodegenerative diseases, has raised an additional $14 million in seed funding, bringing the total for the round up to $47 million. The financing was led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation and the Business Growth Fund Ltd (BGF), which joined existing investors.
Eli Lilly and Company has broadened an existing partnership with Shanghai, China-based Abbisko Therapeutics Co Ltd to collaborate on the discovery and development of new, but still unidentified medicinal products. In a statement released on 23 June, the US company said the upgraded collaboration is valued at about $1.9 billion.
California, US-based Frazier Life Sciences has led a $115 million Series A financing for RQ Biotechnology Ltd, a UK company developing engineered antibody therapies for influenza in order to provide durable protection against serious viral infections. The investor syndicate also includes the venture capital groups Forbion and EQT Life Sciences, alongside founding investor LifeArc Ventures.
AbbVie Inc, which for years marketed Humira, a former blockbuster medicine, is to replenish its portfolio with the acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech company with candidate products for inflammatory and immunological diseases. Announced on 22 June, the all-cash transaction values Apogee at $135.11 per share or approximately $10.9 billion. This represents a premium of about 49.5% over Apogee’s closing price on Nasdaq the day before the announcement.