Zielbio Inc., of Charlottesville, Va., closed on a $25.1 million series A financing to further its lead candidate, ZB-131, a humanized monoclonal antibody against cell surface plectin, which is expressed on the plasma membrane of ovarian, pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancer cells.

HONG KONG – South Korean biopharmaceutical giant Celltrion Group, of Incheon, and Korea Development Bank (KDB), a wholly state-owned policy development bank, have agreed to run a fund worth KRW220 billion (US$184 million) to grow venture companies in Korea's bio-health care sector.

DUBLIN – Amryt Pharma plc raised $60 million in new equity financing to complete its all-stock takeover of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc., creating a global rare diseases company with three marketed products, a U.S. commercial infrastructure and a couple of near-term opportunities to expand its portfolio.

LONDON – Tacalyx GmbH has raised €7 million (US$7.7 million) in seed funding to initiate research on a new generation of antibodies targeted at tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) expressed on a wide variety of tumor cells.

BOSTON – Panelists at Biopharm America debated strategies for early stage financing as they weighed the importance of a prestigious board, the wisdom of small deals by startups with pharma firms, and the likelihood (or not) that angel investors will help make the case with other backers yet to come.

Royal Oak, Mich.-based liquid biopsy startup Oncocell MDx Inc. reeled in $22.2 million in a series B financing led by Savitr Capital, with participation from existing investors. The company, which has raised a total of $30 million to date, plans to use the proceeds to support ongoing development of its pan-disease immunogenomics platform and commercialization of its novel noninvasive blood-based tests.

BEIJING – Biologics developer Hisun Bioray Bio-pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned drugmaker Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., received ¥3.8 billion (US$540 million) from Hong Kong investor PAG for a 58% stake in the company.

Anokion SA, a Swiss biotech focused on autoimmune disease, is bringing in-house a startup it spun out for a development alliance with Astellas Pharma Inc. The acquisition of Kanyos Bio Inc., announced alongside news it closed a $40 million series B financing, puts front and center KAN-101, a preclinical celiac disease drug poised for an IND filing by year-end. Together with Anokion's lead candidate, ANK-780, an antigen-specific treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS), the company anticipates having two programs in clinical development within the next 12 months.

DUBLIN – Inotrem SA raised €39 million (US$42.9 million) in a series B round to finance a phase IIb trial of its first-in-class septic shock drug candidate, nangibotide, along with a candidate biomarker that may enable it to select patients most likely to benefit from the therapy.

HONG KONG & BEIJING – Chinese biosimilar maker Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc. is ready to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on its second try. The firm plans to issue 64.7 million shares globally under the stock code 2696. The maximum offer price is HK$57.8 per share, which means the biosimilar maker could raise as much as HK$3.74 billion (US$477 million).