Private investors, governmental institutions and longtime life sciences investors provided funding to develop therapies for cancers, dermatological problems and acute ischemic strokes.
Unnamed private investors, governmental institutions and longtime life sciences investors supported these biotech companies with funding to develop therapies for hard-to-treat cancers, dermatological problems and acute ischemic strokes.
Senti Biosciences
Leading gene circuit company Senti Biosciences announced $5.175 million in funding from Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer AG. The funding comes in the form of a Note Subscription Agreement for an unsecured, convertible promissory note.
In December, Senti and Dynamics Special Purpose Corp announced a business combination to create a public company dedicated to gene therapies and gene circuit-engineered cells. When the deal is closed, the Note Subscription Agreement will be canceled and exchanged for DYNS Class A common stock at a conversion price of $10.00 per share.
In early 2021, Senti Bio’s Series B financing was led by Leaps by Bayer and totaled around $105 million. The funding boosted the company’s off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (CAR-NK) cell therapies for difficult-to-treat cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia, colorectal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Now, the extra $5.175 million from Leaps by Bayer will help bolster the CAR-NK programs as Senti hopes to submit Investigational New Drug (IND) applications next year.
ZZ Biotech and the Keck School of Medicine
ZZ Biotech and researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) are working together on ZZ Biotech’s drug, 3K3A-APC. The drug is an experimental treatment for acute ischemic stroke. The two organizations announced that because of the success in the drug’s previous Phase II Raphsody clinical trial, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), will award them a $30 million grant. The grant will fund a Phase III trial of 3K3A-APC.
On Tuesday, ZZ Biotech and the Keck School of Medicine received $4 million as the first tranche. The rest of the $30 million will be given in tranches over the six years of the grant, pending the accomplishment of milestones.
Patrick Lyden, M.D., professor of physiology and neuroscience and neurology at the Keck School of Medicine, said, “In addition to funding the upcoming Phase III trial, the grant is a recognition by the NINDS of the great need to find a suitable treatment that produces better patient outcomes while reducing the burdensome healthcare costs associated with ischemic stroke, the third leading cause of death and the most common cause of disability in industrialized nations.”
Inceptor Bio
Founded in 2020, Inceptor Bio just closed its Series A financing, gathering a solid $37 million. The North Carolina-based company focuses and developing therapies for difficult-to-treat cancers.
The financing, led by Kineticos Venture, will fund two of Inceptor Bio’s imminent goals: first, to advance Inceptor’s CAR-T lead program to a Phase I clinical trial, and second, to finish building Inceptor’s new 29,000-square-foot facility in Gainesville, Florida. When complete, the facility will be a state-of-the-art cell and gene therapy GMP manufacturing site.
Exavir Therapeutics
Exavir Therapeutics, a company creating modality-agnostic antiviral treatments for HIV and other viral infections, closed a seed financing round worth $4 million. The seed funding was led by AlleyCorp and included participation from Gilead Sciences. With over $30 billion spent annually on antiretroviral HIV therapies worldwide, HIV treatment is a high-need, high-paying market.
“We are thrilled to have the support of AlleyCorp and Gilead Sciences, a pioneer and leader in antiviral drug development,” said Alborz Yazdi, co-founder and president of Exavir. “With this financing, we are one step closer to our goal of bringing Exavir’s broad portfolio of long-acting antivirals to communities around the world affected by some of the most challenging viruses.”
Biofrontera
Dermatological product company Biofrontera closed a private placement worth $9.4 million. Roth Capital Partners and The Benchmark Company acted as the exclusive placement agents for the private offering with a single institutional investor.
The transaction consisted of 3,419,000 shares of Biofrontera Inc. common stock, or common stock equivalents, with a warrant to purchase a single share at $2.75. The warrants’ exercise price is $2.77 per share. The funds will sustain Biofrontera through three clinical trials running in parallel on its flagship product Ameluz.
Oviva Therapeutics
Oviva Therapeutics, a Cambrian Biopharma pipeline company, announced $11.5 million in seed funding from Cambrian Biopharma. The announcement also included an in-licensing agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) of a family of patents.
Oviva, a biotech company focused on women’s health, aims to develop first-in-class therapeutics to improve healthspan – the period of life spent in good health - in women. The seed funding will go toward one of Oviva’s first goals, which is to work on ovarian aging. The company hopes to take research on Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) genes in ovaries from pre-clinical studies to in-vivo clinical testing.
