Money on the Move: AdvanCell, eTheRNA, Bluejay and More
24 Aug 2022
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Funding rounds in mid-August threw support behind promising companies worldwide, and money is now flowing into platforms for prostate cancer, mRNA therapeutics, hepatitis and depression.
“Revolutionary” Metastatic Prostate Cancer Candidate Earns AdvanCell $12M in Series B
Sydney, Australia-based AdvanCell closed its Series B financing round, counting more than $12 million in earnings. These funds will go to its proprietary platform, Targeted Alpha Therapy, which combines highly-specific targeting molecules with naturally decaying radioisotopes to deliver radiotherapy straight to a tumor.
The lead candidate out of this platform, 212Pb-ADVC001, is a best-in-class compound for metastatic prostate cancer. Proceeds from AdvanCell’s Series B round will also help accelerate the candidate through to the clinics.
To further support its Targeted Alpha Therapy platform, the radiopharmaceutical company is strengthening its capacity for on-demand isotope production. AdvanCell has developed the world’s first scalable manufacturing platform for alpha-emitting isotopes, thanks to additional funding from various government initiatives.
Next-Gen mRNA Manufacturing Gets $39M in Series B2 for eTheRNA
The recently-concluded Series B2 round of funding has earned eTheRNA Immunotherapies nearly $39M, which the company plans to use to further expand and develop its mRNA-based platforms.
Since its founding in 2013, the Belgian biotech has honed its proprietary processes for designing, developing and manufacturing what it calls “next-generation mRNA products.” With the help of these Series B2 proceeds, eTheRNA looks to move into a partnership-driven business strategy, which will see the company deliver high-quality products, such as T cell adjuvants and customized lipid nanoparticle formulations, to a wide range of partners across the entire spectrum of drug development.
The current financing round was led by the investment firm Novalis LifeSciences and counted among its participants Prof. Kenneth Chien, renowned mRNA expert and co-founder of Moderna Therapeutics. Chien is joining eTheRNA’s board of directors, while the company’s current COO, Bernard Sagaert, will serve as its interim CEO.
Freedom Biosciences Exits Stealth Mode with $10.5M Seed Round
Mental health start-up Freedom Biosciences emerged from its state of secrecy, touting $10.5 million in seed financing from MBX Capital, PsyMed Ventures, Village Global and others. The proceeds will help the fledgling firm get its lead ketamine program off the ground.
Freedom’s flagship program is dubbed FREE001, which is a ketamine-based treatment regimen for people with major depressive disorder. In preclinical studies, FREE001 demonstrated more durable benefits than ketamine alone. In a Phase II investigational study, Freedom’s combination approach induced an antidepressant effect up to three times longer than monotherapy.
Backing Freedom’s ketamine program are some industry heavy-hitters: John Krystal, the chairperson of the department of psychiatry at Yale University, is serving as the company’s chief scientific officer. Dina Burkitbayeva, one of the pioneering investors in the therapeutic psychedelics space, is its chief executive. Freedom will also use its seed fund to power other exploratory programs.
Windtree’s Pipeline Attracts Two Chinese Firms in $80M Deal
Pennsylvania biotech Windtree Therapeutics has entered into a $78.9-million deal with Hong Kong-based Lee’s Pharmaceutical and its China affiliate, Zhaoke Pharmaceutical. At the core of the agreement are Windtree’s pulmonary pipeline treatments, particularly the KL4 surfactant and the drug-device combination AEROSURF, both for respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants.
Lee and Zhaoke had previously won a regional license for KL4 and AEROSURF, paying an upfront $1 million for rights to Windtree’s pipeline products in the Greater China area. This week’s deal expands that coverage globally. In turn, the Asian companies will assume all funding responsibility over development, manufacturing, commercialization and intellectual property activities, while Windtree will remain entitled to commercial milestones and potential double-digit royalties.
After its execution, the agreement will conclude all of Windtree’s ongoing maintenance and operating costs for KL4.
$80M Series B Fuels Chinese CDMO’s Global Quest
Chinese firm Porton Advanced Solutions closed its Series B financing round this week, raising more than $80 million. These funds will help Porton establish itself as a globally competitive end-to-end gene and cell therapy (GCT) contract development and manufacturing company. The company also plans on using the proceeds to bolster its core manufacturing facilities and expand into new markets.
Porton’s business is focused on the GCT space, producing plasmids, oncolytic viruses, nucleic acid therapies, vectors and other reagents needed in GCT work. The company currently has an operational footprint of 40,000 square feet dedicated for R&D and manufacturing but plans to add 160,000 square feet more by the end of this year or early 2023, meant for commercial production. This will take Porton to a total of ten viral vectors and ten cell therapy production lines, and hundreds of clean rooms.
PanTher Wins $14.2M to Support Localized, Sustained Pancreatic Cancer Therapeutic
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of TexasCancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) has awarded Massachusetts-based, cancer-focused company PanTher Therapeutics with a $14.2-million grant to support the development of PTM-101, PanTher’s lead investigational drug for pancreatic cancer.
PTM-101, the lead compound out of PanTher’s proprietary Sagittari platform, is a minimally invasive implant meant to consistently deliver a known drug directly to the tumor site. This sustained-release approach is currently in Phase I assessments for patients with non-metastatic disease.
PanTher plans on using CPRIT’s grant to fund PTM-101’s development through Phase II studies and further improve upon its Sagittari platform, which it hopes could add more innovative localized cancer candidates to its pipeline.
Bluejay Deepens Leadership Bench, Secures $41M in Series B for Chronic Hepatitis Trials
With its Series B round of financing recently completed, San Francisco’s Bluejay Therapeutics now has $41 million in the bank to fund its hepatitis programs. Primarily, the privately-held biopharma plans to channel these proceeds into its lead candidate BJT-778, a human monoclonal antibody against the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg). BJT-778 is set for a proof-of-concept study in patients with chronic infections.
Bluejay will also allot some of its Series B earnings for the first-in-human trials of BJT-574, an oral small-molecule inhibitor of HBsAg.
Alongside the completion of its Series B funding, the California company welcomed new additions to its leadership roster: William J. Rutter, chairman and CEO of Synergenics LLC, Alon Lazarus, investment manager with Arkin Bio Ventures and Ting Jia, founder and chief investment officer of Octagon capital. All three will serve on Bluejay’s board of directors.
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