Start-Ups & SMEs

The neoantigen immunotherapy company is a casualty of slow R&D progress and a squeeze on biotech finance – and more firms are in the firing line.

The head of the US arm of a major Korean government development institute talks to Scrip about why biotechs and pharma firms are flocking to Boston, how the organization is providing support and what the main challenges are.

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. 

Bayer is handing back rights to two early-stage off-the-shelf CAR-Ts to Atara, but the split could still be good news for the biotech company.

The big pharma company and its new partner both expect demand to continue for pre-exposure prophylaxis antibody therapies, for COVID-19 and beyond.

The start-up is built around four business units – technology, manufacturing, R&D and therapeutics – based on internal and external expertise. Kriya will take its first gene therapies into the clinic in 2023. 

Private Company Edition: Also, Catalio closed a $381m venture capital fund and OrbiMed’s SEC filings indicate it is in the process of raising $4.75bn across three new funds. Dianthus launched with $100m and Tubulis closed a $63m series B round.

Michael Parini talks to Scrip about how a new focus at the company can help it prove the value of its AAV-based gene therapy platform.

Investor Deerfield Management and genomic sequencing giant Illumina entered into a five-year partnership to identify novel targets and drug candidates that may be spun out into new companies.

The firm, helmed by former life science investment banker James Boylan, views the current difficult financial market as the perfect time to offer its expertise and capital to growing companies.

Also, Cytovia will go public via SPAC merger, Nkarta capitalized on its positive early NK cell therapy data with a $230m offering, and venture capital mega-rounds include $220m for Reify, $110m for Satellite Bio and $100m for OMass Therapeutics. 

The newly launched biotech has a novel platform for discovering protective tissue factors and turning them into therapies,with heart failure prevention its first target.