Start-Ups & SMEs

Emerging Company Profile: US firm Peptilogics is advancing through the clinic with its lead orthopedic anti-infective drug candidate based on an AI platform that utilizes algorithms to improve peptide design.

The UK firm with a presence in Boston has just emerged but Pheon’s CEO Bertrand Damour tells Scrip that big pharma is already showing interest in its next-generation antibody-drug conjugate.

The start-up will secure $70m from Genentech, after closing a series B financing, while it moves its first CAR-T program into the clinic for ovarian cancer later this year.

VC funding slowed recently, but public company financings kept up a brisk pace with follow-on public offerings for Allakos and Alpine, private placements for Ventyx and Syros, and Albireo’s royalty deal. In restructuring updates, Biogen raised $592m in a real estate deal and Acerus is assessing options.

Private Company Edition: Acelyrin will use its latest funding for Phase III development of izokibep in inflammatory diseases. Also, ArsenalBio raised $220m to take its programmable cell therapies into the clinic and RayzeBio’s $160m series D round will fund clinical trials for its radiopharmaceuticals. 

A Phase IIb trial testing IMC-1 for fibromyalgia failed to reach statistical significance on the primary pain endpoint, but one cohort showed an improvement and Virios intends to pursue the drug further.

The start-up, founded on science from the University of Pennsylvania, announced a $102m series A financing and the appointment of former Silverback CEO Laura Shawver as CEO.

Roche is paying $250m up front to buy Good Therapeutics, which will launch a new company, Bonum Therapeutics, to explore its platform technology for targets other than interleukin-2.

Private Company Edition: Westlake Village BioPartners’ latest launch 3T Biosciences also licensed a second TCR platform from Stanford University. In other recent financings, Senda raised a $123m series C round, Orna revealed a $221m series B and CPRIT funded several cancer drug developers.

The UK biotech is developing three key assets - setrusumab, alvelestat and etigilimab - but according to its biggest stockholder, the progress being made is too slow and the share price is too low.

Private Company Edition: Sironax completed a $200m series B round while IDRx launched with $122m and OriCell raised $120m in series C funds, joining end-of-July $100m-plus fundraiser Carmot Therapeutics, which closed a $160m series D financing. 

With a hub-and-spoke model, Replay has ambitious plans to solve multiple problems in genetic medicine and to disrupt the current AAV gene therapy model.