Private Company Edition: The global accelerator has new commitments from HHS and the Wellcome Trust. Also, Apollo buys into Sofinnova Partners with an up to €1bn investment, Castle Creek raised $124.6m in private funding this year in lieu of an IPO and Remix closed a $70m series B round. 

Cash is available for start-up, growth-stage and public companies through Texas Medical Center’s newly doubled venture fund, a pandemic preparedness initiative and new VC funds. In recent financings, Nutcracker closed a $167m series C round and 2Seventy raised $170m in a private placement. 

Building on an alliance dating back to 2016, Exscientia and Sanofi will use artificial intelligence and insights gleaned from patient tissue samples to seek out 15 novel therapies.

Public Company Edition: Also, Roivant and two other biopharma firms close SPAC mergers and begin trading on the Nasdaq, Spero negotiated a royalty financing worth up to $125m and Phathom secured a $200m term loan.