Rather than focus on making one drug at a time, Creyon Bio Inc. is taking its more than $40 million in seed and series A financing to build its platform to understand the genetic roots of disease and then create precision medicines. Creyon is creating datasets to engineer RNA-based and single-stranded oligonucleotide-based medicines (OBMs) in addition to DNA and RNA editing systems. Those datasets are tailored to deliver models that create OBMs that are safe and effective for treating both common diseases and rare diseases.
Alopexx Inc. filed for an IPO that would bank as much as $17 million to continue the firm’s investigations of bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections that express the antigenic target poly N-acetyl glucosamine (PNAG).
Microbiotica Ltd. of Cambridge, U.K., has raised £50 million ($67 million) in series B funding as the company aims to test its microbiome-based technology in early cancer and ulcerative colitis trials. The funding was co-led by new investors Tencent and Flerie Invest, with British Patient Capital on board along with existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, IP Group and Seventure. With response rates to checkpoint inhibitors still very low, Microbiotica’s scientists think that the way to improve the immune system’s response to these drugs is by modifying the bacteria present in the gut.
Investors are backing precision medicine company Cancer IQ Inc. with $14 million to expand use of its cancer prevention platform. The series B funds will be used to scale the company’s cancer screening service among diverse, uninsured, and rural populations in the U.S.
Egg Medical Inc. secured a $13 million investment from TVM Capital Life Science to solve the Humpty-Dumpty problem that plagues interventional cardiology – the scattering of radiation during X-ray guided procedures. The company’s Eggnest XR product contains the radiation using a carbon fiber platform with integrated radiation shielding that replaces the patient mattress on the X-ray table.
The French government has unveiled future investment plans. It reported the “Innovative Medical Devices” plan as part of the France 2030 initiative, in support of the medical devices industry. At the start of 2022, an innovative “Healthcare 2030” initiative came into effect, which sees the mobilization of $8.35 billion in credit for the life sciences sector.