Follow the Money: Obesity, COPD, Universal AI for Biology

By Bio-IT World Staff  

January 29, 2025 | January saw new company launches in COPD and small molecules, as well as investments targeting genetic engineering, epigenome editing, regenerative medicine, and more.  

$411M: Series A for Oral, Injectable Obesity Treatments 

Verdiva Bio launch as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies for obesity and other cardiometabolic disorders. The company is advancing a portfolio of next-generation oral and injectable treatments with first-in-class or best-in-class potential. The oversubscribed Series A was co-led by Forbion and General Atlantic, with additional participation from RA Capital Management, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, and LYFE Capital. Press release.  

$207M: Series C for Ophthalmic Conditions 

Aviceda Therapeutics, a private, clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing next-generation immunomodulators with a proprietary High Affinity Ligands of Siglecs (HALOS) nanotechnology platform to alleviate chronic, non-resolving inflammation, has closed a $207.5 million Series C financing. Proceeds will support the ongoing Phase 2b/3 and planned pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial for AVD-104 in geographic atrophy (GA), a vision-threatening condition secondary to advanced age-related macular degeneration, and the expansion into other ophthalmic indications. The Series C round was co-led by renowned healthcare funds, Omega Funds and TCGX, with participation from leading investment firms Enavate Sciences, Jeito Capital, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Longitude Capital, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Marshall Wace, Catalio Capital Management, funds managed by abrdn Inc., and Digitalis Ventures. Press release.  

$200M: Series A Company Launch for Asthma, COPD 

Windward Bio has launched with $200M in Series A financing from OrbiMed, Novo Holdings, and Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities. Co-investments came from SR One, Omega Funds, RTW Investments, Qiming Venture Partners, Quan Capital, and Pivotal bioVenture Partners. Windward Bio has entered into an agreement to license WIN378 from Kelun-Biotech and Harbour BioMed for global rights, excepting China and select smaller markets in Asia. WIN378 is a potential best-in-class, long-acting monoclonal antibody targeting the ligand of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) that has the potential to be dosed every 6 months. The company is preparing to begin a phase 2 trial investigating WIN378 in severe asthma with initial clinical readouts expected in 2026. Additional clinical trials are planned in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), aiming to address unmet needs in approximately 5 million advanced, uncontrolled patients in the US, Europe, and Japan. Press release.  

$200M: Series C for Genetic Engineering Technologies 

Colossal Biosciences announced $200 million in a Series C financing. This latest round of capital places the company at a $10.2 billion valuation. Colossal will leverage this latest infusion of capital to continue to advance its genetic engineering technologies while pioneering new revolutionary software, wetware and hardware solutions, which have applications beyond de-extinction including species preservation and human healthcare. Press release 

$200M: Series A and Company Launch for Breakthrough Small Molecules 

Tenvie Therapeutics launched with a commitment to transform the treatment of neurological diseases. The company combines a deep and diverse portfolio of small molecule assets, including programs acquired from Denali Therapeutics Inc., with a proven team of research and development leaders. The $200 million in funding led by ARCH Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, Mubadala Capital, with participation from additional high-quality investors, will accelerate Tenvie’s growth into a multi-clinical asset company. Press release.  

$180M: Series A to Develop, Commercialize a for mAb 

Timberlyne Therapeutics has closed a $180 million Series A financing to advance CM313, a potentially best-in-class monoclonal antibody targeting CD38, for diseases of high unmet medical needs. The financing was led by investors Abingworth, Bain Capital Life Sciences, and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, with participation from Boyu Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, Braidwell LP, and 3H Health Investment. Timberlyne Therapeutics was formed by Mountainfield Venture Partners, a biopharma company creation firm, in partnership with Keymed Biosciences. Timberlyne has obtained exclusive development and commercialization rights to CM313 worldwide outside of greater China from Keymed Biosciences, a leading drug discovery and development company. CM313 is an IgG1 monoclonal antibody with enhanced complement-dependent cytotoxicity and has been clinically studied across numerous disease states, including immune thrombocytopenic purpura, systemic lupus erythematosus, and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Across these trials, CM313 has demonstrated potentially best-in-class characteristics. The therapeutic potential of CM313 was demonstrated in a clinical study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the drug candidate achieved a 95% response rate in patients with treatment-refractory Immune Thrombocytopenia. Press release.  

$175M: Series B for Epigenome Editing of Hepatitis B 

Leading epigenome editing company Tune Therapeutics (Tune) today announced the completion of over $175M in financing led by New Enterprise Associates, Yosemite, Regeneron Ventures and Hevolution Foundation. The funding will accelerate the development of the company’s existing pipeline, currently anchored by Tune-401 – its clinical-stage epigenetic silencing drug for chronic Hepatitis B (HBV). It will also support the development of additional gene, cell, and regenerative therapy programs already underway at Tune, and to progress its broader mission of bringing the power and versatility of epigenetic therapies to bear on common and chronic diseases. The funding will accelerate the development of the company’s existing pipeline, currently anchored by Tune-401 – its clinical-stage epigenetic silencing drug for chronic Hepatitis B (HBV). It will also support the development of additional gene, cell, and regenerative therapy programs already underway at Tune, and to progress its broader mission of bringing the power and versatility of epigenetic therapies to bear on common and chronic diseases. Press release.  

$115M: Series B for Bioprinted Tissue for Regenerative Medicine 

Aspect Biosystems has closed a $115 million Series B financing round led by Dimension with participation from existing and new investors including Novo Nordisk, Radical Ventures, an undisclosed leading global investment firm, InBC, Pallasite Ventures, Pangaea Ventures, Rhino Ventures, and T1D Fund: A Breakthrough T1D Venture. This financing builds on Aspect’s recent momentum, including a CA$200 million partnership with the governments of Canada and British Columbia and a partnership with Novo Nordisk focused on diabetes and obesity. Proceeds from the Series B enable Aspect to advance multiple bioprinted tissue therapeutics towards the clinic with a mission to deliver a new class of cellular medicines and functional cures for people living with serious metabolic and endocrine diseases. Additionally, the funds will fuel the expansion of Aspect’s industry-leading, full-stack tissue therapeutic platform, which integrates proprietary AI-powered bioprinting technology, computational design tools, therapeutic cells, and advanced biomaterials. Press release. 

$105M: Series C for At-Home Colorectal Cancer Diagnostics 

Geneoscopy closed a Series C funding round raising $105 million. Bio-Rad Laboratories led the financing and was joined by Petrichor, Labcorp, Morningside Ventures, Lightchain Capital, NT Investments, Granger Management and Mercy Health, Tri Locum Partners, and others. The capital raise positions the company to achieve key milestones, including the launch and commercialization of Geneoscopy’s at-home, stool-based colorectal cancer screening test, ColoSense. The funding also enables the company to continue investing in its innovative pipeline of diagnostic tests for inflammatory bowel disease, addressing a critical unmet medical need. Press release.  

 $92M: Series C for B Cell Medicines 

Be Biopharma announced the closing of its $92 million Series C financing. The proceeds from the Series C financing will be used support the development of B-cell medicines (BCM), specifically to generate clinical proof-of-concept for BE-101 in the ongoing BeCoMe-9 Phase 1/2 clinical trial for people with hemophilia B and to advance BE-102 for the treatment of hypophosphatasia to the clinic. Both programs are built on Be Bio’s BCM product platform, creating durable, titratable, and redosable therapeutics that require no preconditioning and produce sustained and constant levels of therapeutic proteins. Press release 

$86M: Series A for Ophthalmology Gene Therapy 

RhyGaze, based in Basel, Switzerland and Philadelphia, Pa., has secured a Series A financing of USD 86 million. The round was led by GV (Google Ventures), alongside Arch Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital and founding investors BioGeneration Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund, who contributed $11 million to an earlier seed round. RhyGaze was founded on intellectual property exclusively licensed to the company by the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), a scientific institute led by Director Botond Roska, M.D., Ph.D., who is a scientific co-founder of RhyGaze. This funding will enable further development of RhyGaze’s lead clinical candidate, a novel gene therapy for optogenetic vision restoration in diseases causing blindness. Activities to be supported include formal pharmacology and toxicology testing, a non-interventional, observational study to assess potential clinical endpoints in patient groups eligible for the therapy and a first-in-human clinical trial to test the safety, tolerability and potential efficacy of the lead candidate. Press release.  

$76M: Series A for First Universal AI for Biology 

Bioptimus has reached a significant funding milestone of $76 million. The funding will accelerate Bioptimus’s mission to build the world’s first universal AI foundation model for biology, aimed at revolutionizing research and innovation across the medical, biotech, cosmetic industries, and more. Bioptimus’s approach integrates data across multiple scales (molecules, cells, tissues, organisms) and modalities (imaging, genetics, etc), enabling a holistic view of biology as it exists in reality. Press release 

$55M: Series B for AI eClinical Platform 

Lindus Health, "the anti-CRO" has raised $55M in Series B funding. The round was led by new investor Balderton Capital, with support from Visionaries Club and existing investors Creandum, Firstminute, and Seedcamp. The $55M in new funding will allow the company to further develop their AI technology and eClinical platform, Citrus, to optimize study design, automate central monitoring of study data, enable instant biostatistics, and more, as well as hiring in key areas including clinical operations and product development. Press release.  

$30M: Series A for B Cell-Mediated Autoimmune Disorders 

Hinge Bio closed a Series A’ financing. The proceeds will support entry of the company’s lead product candidate, HB2198, into a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients living with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, as well as development of additional therapeutics from Hinge Bio’s proprietary GEM-DIMER platform to treat diseases with high unmet need. HB2198 is expected to enter clinical development during 2025. The program seeks to treat B cell-mediated autoimmune disorders by targeting both CD19 and CD20 with enhanced natural killer cell engagement. Press release 

$27M: Series E for Breath Biopsy 

Owlstone Medical announced a first closing of $27 million in its Series E financing round. The fundraise was led by Ventura Capital, joined by Aviva Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and other existing investors. The close also saw completion of the investment from the Gates Foundation. The funds will be used to support the ongoing development of Owlstone’s proprietary Breath Biopsy platform and the development and commercialization of novel diagnostic tests and point of care devices. (For more on the Breath Biopsy platform, see our coverage here and here.) Press release.  

$18M: Series A for World’s First AI-Powered Automated IVF Lab 

Conceivable closed an $18 million Series A financing. The financing will support a commercial pilot, which includes a 100-patient Institutional Review Board (IRB) study currently underway. In a prior IRB study using its first-generation AI and automation platform, 22 pregnancies were achieved upon the first embryo transfer. In addition to advancing its pilot, Conceivable will use the funding to prepare for a U.S. launch targeted for early 2026. Press release