SYNOX THERAPEUTICS UK LIMITED

Plus, news about Newron and SynOx: Daré Bioscience inks royalty deal with XOMA: The company received $22 million, which is expected to help progress a pair of women’s health therapies through Phase 3. Dare’s stock $DARE was up about 28% after announcing the agreement. — Jaimy Lee Qlaris Bio secures $24M in Series B: The proceeds will support the continued development of the biotech’s Phase 2 asset, QLS‑111, which is designed to lower intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. The fundraise was co-led by Canaan and New Leaf Venture Partners. — Ayisha Sharma You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

European venture capital firm Forbion announced Thursday morning an initial close of €470 million ($504 million) for its second growth fund meant to boost late clinical-stage biotechs. Forbion’s Growth Opportunities Fund II comes two years after its first late-stage-specific growth fund, which saw its first close at €250 million and final close at €360 million. The highlight from that fund? Gyroscope Therapeutics, which sold to Novartis in December for $1.5 billion in a deal that centered around a gene therapy for advanced AMD, a vision loss disease. “When we started thinking about the Growth Opportunities Fund in 2019, we felt it was clear that there was a real need for late-stage capital in Europe, and there was an emerging number of European late stage companies in dire need for private growth capital in particular,” Forbion partner Dirk Kersten told Endpoints News . With the first fund, Forbion made nine investments into European biotechs in clinical studies. However, Kersten noted that the VC firm is taking a bit of a different approach with its investments for this second fund. “What has changed over the last 18 months, of course, is the public market sentiment,” Kersten said. “When the public markets were bullish two years ago, we kind of steered away a little bit from pre-IPO valuations that were creeping up and getting pretty high, and we really focused on pharma spinouts and private rounds. “And now that the public markets have cooled off, we are actually redirecting our activities towards public opportunities and undervalued assets,” he continued. Forbion’s first growth fund also spun out SynOx, an Ireland-based biotech sporting an antibody treatment licensed from Roche for treating the rare disease of tenosynovial giant cell tumors. In addition, the fund invested in NewAmsterdam Pharma, which currently has a treatment for lowering cholesterol from heart disease in Phase IIb studies. Pantheon, Eli Lilly and Wealth Management Partners, all returning investors, contributed to the fund, though a number of new investors also joined the fray, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Reggeborgh. With new money in hand, Forbion will be looking at European biotechs heading into Phase II and III clinical trials, though Kersten said that an exception could be made for some oncology products in Phase I studies. He also noted that Forbion will be branching into some US companies with its investments, calling an “80:20” split between investments made in Europe and the US. The VC said it expects to reach its €600 million ($643 million) hard cap for its second growth fund over the summer.