Palleon Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of a $100 million Series B round to develop its pipeline of glyco-immunology therapies. Its lead program in oncology, an enzymatic sialoglycan degrader, is expected to hit the clinic next year.
The Series B led by Matrix Capital Management will help push that pipeline toward the clinic. Returning investors include Vertex Ventures HC, SR One, Pfizer Ventures, Takeda Ventures, and AbbVie Ventures with new investor Surveyor Capital chipping in.
Bristol Myers Squibb has exercised its option to globally license Obsidian Therapeutics' CD40L-armed cell therapy. The deal gives Bristol Myers control of a drug designed to counter the antigen-negative tumor escape that restricts the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapies.
Celgene secured an option on cell therapies featuring technology to control the activity of CD40L and IL-12 in the run-up to its $74 billion acquisition by Bristol Myers. Having gained the option through the takeover, Bristol Myers has decided to opt in and claim its exclusive worldwide license on the CD40L program.
AlloVir has raised $276 million in an upsized IPO to fund development of allogeneic T-cell treatments for viral diseases. The money will equip AlloVir to embark on a broad clinical development program for a phase 3-ready cell therapy that targets five viruses.
Massachusetts-based AlloVir generates off-the-shelf virus-specific T cells in donors before stimulating their peripheral blood mononuclear cells to selectively activate and expand the therapeutic cells. By giving patients T cells that partially match their HLA subtype, AlloVir thinks it can kill virus infected cells without harming healthy cells or causing graft-versus-host disease.
Elevation Oncology, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of precision medicines for patients with genomically defined cancers, announced today the launch of the Company with a $32.5M Series A financing, initiation of the Phase 2 CRESTONE study, and new partnerships with Next Generation Sequencing diagnostic providers including Ashion Analytics, Strata Oncology, and Tempus to explore innovative models for real-time identification, patient referral, and enrollment of patients with tumors driven by rare genomic alterations. The Series A financing was led by Aisling Capital and a syndicate of investors including Vertex Ventures HC, Qiming Venture Partners USA, Driehaus Capital Management, and BVF Partners.
Our Vertex Ventures HC Managing Director, Carolyn Ng, made the Endpoints 20 under 40 list of Rising Biopharma Leaders 2020. Passionate about biotech innovation, diversity and gender equality, the former oncology scientist shares how her Singaporean roots and cross-border experience add value to her investment work in this special feature article authored by the Singapore Global Network. In this interview, we learn of her views on how global biotech and diversity will change our world.
Nuvaira, a developer of novel therapeutic strategies to treat obstructive lung diseases, has announced that its Nuvaira® Lung Denervation System has been designated as a Breakthrough Device by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This program creates an expedited pathway for prioritized FDA review of devices that have potential to provide more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.