Follow the Money: T Cell Engineering, Kidney Transplants, Intravascular Imaging Technology, More

$390M: Series A for T-Cell Engager Antibodies 

Candid Therapeutics debuted with a $370 million capital raise for its T-cell engager (“TCE”) antibodies that can deplete specific B lymphocyte cell populations. B lymphocytes lead to autoimmune pathology by producing autoantibodies that attack the body's own tissues and through antigen presentation and cytokine release. Selective depletion of B lymphocytes has shown unprecedented clinical efficacy in highly refractory patients across multiple autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis. Candid also acquired Vignette Bio and TRC 2004 to integrate two bispecific TCEs: CND106, a BCMAxCD3 bispecific antibody from Vignette Bio, which was initially founded by Foresite Labs; CND261, a CD20xCD3 bispecific antibody from TRC 2004; and CND106 and CND261 have both completed Phase 1 dose escalation studies with combined data in over 130 oncology patients.

$325M: Series C for T Cell Engineering Technology 

Arsenal Biosciences has closed an oversubscribed $325 million Series C financing round. The financing will advance ArsenalBio’s T cell engineering technology, including logic gating, and further develop tools and processes for identifying new candidate cell therapies for solid tumor cancers.

$191M: Series D for Advancing First-in-Human Study for Kidney Transplant 

eGenesis closed a $191 million Series D financing. EGEN-2784 is the company’s lead candidate for kidney transplant and carries three classes of edits: (1) knock out of three genes involved in the synthesis of glycan antigens implicated in hyperacute rejection; (2) insertion of seven human transgenes involved in the regulation of pathways that modulate rejection: inflammation, innate immunity, coagulation, and complement; and (3) inactivation of the endogenous retroviruses in the porcine genome. 

$150M: Series A for RNA Therapeutics for Kidney Disease 

Borealis Biosciences emerged from stealth with $150 million in combined Series A financing from founding investor Versant Ventures and Novartis AG, as well as committed strategic research collaboration funding from Novartis. Borealis was founded on the premise that a convergence of scientific and translational breakthroughs can enable RNA therapeutics to address major unmet needs for patients with kidney diseases. These include an improved understanding of patient stratification, genetically defined targets, requirements for delivery of therapeutic payloads to specific kidney cell types, and RNA chemistry advancements.

$120M: Series A for GPCR Targets 

Superluminal Medicines announced the closing of a $120 million Series A funding round to increase the number of small molecule drug discovery programs focused on high-value G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets. The company’s platform creates candidate-ready compounds by generative biology, chemistry, machine learning, and proprietary big data infrastructure.

$105M: Series B for End Stage Kidney Disease Trials 

Pathalys Pharma closed a $105 million Series B financing round. The funds raised will be utilized to finalize the two ongoing upacicalcet clinical trials for end stage kidney disease, the NDA filing process with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and acceleration of preapproval commercialization preparations.

$100M: Series A for Bispecific Antibody Targeting Complex Autoimmune Diseases 

Navigator Medicines announced a Series A financing of $100 million alongside the in-licensing of NAV-240 and an OX40L-targeted portfolio from IMBiologics Corp. NAV-240, formerly known as IMB101, is a clinical-stage bispecific antibody against OX40L and TNFα, two clinically validated targets that are critical in the pathogenesis of several inflammatory diseases. Dual targeting of both OX40L- and TNFα-driven signaling pathways may improve upon the efficacy of either monotherapy alone as a potential treatment option for complex, heterogenous diseases with unmet medical needs.

$90M: Series D for A/B RxL Inhibitor Development 

Circle Pharma has closed a $90 million Series D financing round, which includes the conversion of a convertible note. The proceeds from the financing will be used to fund the clinical development of CID-078, Circle Pharma’s cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor, and to support the development of the company’s MXMO macrocycle platform. 

$68M: Series A Addition for Brain-Penetrant SARM1 Inhibitor Trial 

Nura Bio closed an additional $68 million, bringing their total Series A financing to $140 million. Nura Bio’s financing close comes at a pivotal point with the Phase 1 success of NB-4746, a brain-penetrant SARM1 inhibitor that has been shown to prevent axon degeneration and provide neuroprotection in multiple preclinical models of nerve injury and disease. Nura Bio plans to initiate a Phase 1b/2 trial in 2025. 

$67M: Series B for Developing Obesity and Metabolic Disorders Treatment 

OrsoBio closed an oversubscribed $67 million Series B financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate development of the company’s mitochondrial protonophore portfolio for the treatment of obesity and associated metabolic disorders.

$65M: Series D for Treatment for Vision Loss and Blindness 

ONL Therapeutics secured $65 million in Series D financing to advance the development of ONL1204 Ophthalmic Solution with the initiation of a Phase 2 global study for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) associated with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). 

$57M: Series E for Sepsis Diagnosis Test 

Inflammatix has closed $57 million in Series E financing. The funds will support regulatory filing and early commercialization of the company's lead product, the TriVerity Acute Infection and Sepsis Test (TriVerity). TriVerity, a blood test performed on Inflammatix's novel Myrna Instrument, is uniquely designed to simultaneously determine whether an infection is present, and how likely a patient will need ICU-level interventions. 

$54.7M: Series B Expansion for Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer  

Epsilogen completed a $16.4 million Series B expansion financing, bringing the Series B total to $54.7 million . This financing will fund the delivery of clinical proof-of-concept for lead asset MOv18 IgE in a phase Ib trial featuring platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC), as well as further development of the company’s IgE-based pipeline.

$53M: Series D for Cryotherapy for Chronic Bronchitis  

CSA Medical announced the completion of an oversubscribed $53 million Series D preferred stock equity financing. This round will fund the company though expected FDA premarket approval and commercialization strategy for a U.S. launch of the RejuvenAir System, a medical device using liquid nitrogen spray cryotherapy for the treatment of chronic bronchitis.

$50M: Series B for Intravascular Imaging Technology 

SpectraWAVE announced a $50M Series B funding round. The company’s 510k-cleared HyperVue Imaging System is the first intravascular imaging technology to combine two important imaging technologies, DeepOCT and NIRS, while optimizing for image quality and procedural efficiency in the cath lab, including no-flush catheter prep, fast and long pullbacks designed to reduce and remove the use of contrast, and the most comprehensive AI-driven workflow and image analysis offering.

$50M: Series B for Novel Degrader Programs in Oncology and Inflammatory Diseases 

PhoreMost added $12 million to its Series B financing, bringing the total raised to over $50 million. This new investment will enable pipeline progression of PhoreMost’s novel degrader programs in oncology and inflammatory diseases and support deployment of the recently launched GlueSEEKER platform2, informing molecular glue design for unprecedented targets.

$48.5M: Series B for Diagnosing MVO in Heart Attack Patients 

CorFlow has raised approximately $48.5 million in Series B funding, which will finance the MOCA II (MVO with CoFI System Assessment II) study. The trial will run in the US and Europe and aims to validate CorFlow’s CoFl system to diagnose microvascular obstruction (MVO) in heart attack patients immediately following stent implantation. Additionally, it will fund an adaptive platform therapy study evaluating treatment effects of therapeutic agents delivered locally through the CoFl system on heart attack patients diagnosed with MVO.

$42M: Series B for Expanding Access to Protein Profiling 

Nomic completed an oversubscribed $42 million Series B funding round. The fresh capital will enable Nomic to accelerate the expansion of its commercial operations, further invest in advancing its state-of-the-art protein profiling platform, and broaden its transformative offerings to meet growing demand.

$40M: Series A for Spatial Omics-Based Atlas of Human Cancer Biology 

Noetik closed an oversubscribed $40 million Series A financing round. Financing will be used to expand Noetik's spatial omics-based atlas of human cancer biology together with its high throughput in vivo CRISPR Perturb-Map platform. Additionally, the investment will enable the company to scale training of its multi-modal cancer foundation models such as OCTO. The company will leverage these platform capabilities to advance an innovative pipeline of cancer therapeutics candidates to the clinic.

$39.8M: Series B for AI on Health Risk, Recommendation Platform 

Human Longevity announced the completion of an oversubscribed $39.8M Series B round. The funding will be used to invest in HLI's artificial intelligence health risk and recommendation platform, new longevity focused technologies and services, and new expansion sites globally. 

$35M: Series A for Multi-Valent, Multi-Specific Antibody Platform 

Radiant Biotherapeutics closed a $35 million Series A financing. Radiant has built a best-in-class, proprietary, multi-valent, multi-specific antibody platform called Multabody. The funds will enable Radiant to further develop the company’s lead clinical candidate, 4-1BB, and move it toward clinical trials. Multabody therapeutics can overcome the shortcomings of existing antibody approaches by leveraging remarkable avidity, or binding strength, on their intended targets. Multabodies also exploit multi-specificity, enabling targeting of different disease-modifying proteins, as well as multiple epitopes on the same target. Together, these qualities give Multabody therapeutics exceptional potency against both solid tumors and blood cancers, infectious disease pathogens, and other targets in multiple therapeutic areas.

$30M: Series B for AI-Powered Virtual Staining Technology 

PictorLabs has completed a $30 million Series B funding round. PictorLabs' AI-powered virtual staining technology eliminates the need for staining reagents and significantly reduces turnaround times, delivering digitally stained slides in just minutes. Physicians can conduct virtually unlimited number of tests from a single specimen.

$26M: Seed Financing for AAV-Delivered Cancer Immunotherapy

Vironexis Biotherapeutics closed a $26 million seed financing and unveiled its TransJoin AAV Gene Therapy Platform and a pipeline of more than ten product candidates for blood-based cancers, solid tumor metastasis prevention, and a cancer vaccine. The company has received clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for VNX-101, its first gene therapy product candidate, for the treatment of CD19+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Vironexis anticipates initiating patient enrollment of a Phase 1/2 trial of VNX-101 in the fourth quarter of 2024. VNX-101 has received both Fast Track Designation and Rare Pediatric Disease Designation from the FDA.

$25M: Series A for Metastatical Colorectal Cancer Vaccine 

Brenus Pharma completed a $25 million Series A financing round. The proceeds will be used to fully fund the STC-1010 cancer vaccine’s first-in-human proof-of-concept, in first line settings for metastatical colorectal cancer patients. STC-1010 is the first vaccine candidate based on the STC 'Stimulated-Tumor-(ghost)-Cells' technology platform developed by Brenus Pharma. 

$21M: Series B for Basal Cell Carcinoma Treatment 

Feldan Therapeutics has closed a $21 million Series B round. The proceeds will be used to complete a Phase 1/2a study for FLD-103, a first-in-class non-invasive intralesional treatment for basal cell carcinoma designed to provide an alternative treatment to surgery. Proceeds will also support the preclinical development of Feldan’s emerging therapeutic pipeline including its Pulmonary Program, further expanding the capabilities of its intracellular delivery technology.