Infectious disease has been rough going for all comers the past few years, as companies have floundered. Appili Therapeutics Inc.’s CEO, Armand Balboni saw the troubles others encountered with the indication and also saw companies with thin pipelines struggle, but it hasn’t stopped him from forging on.
Cambridge, Mass., startup Enclear Therapies Inc. has secured $10 million in series A financing led by 20/20 Healthcare Partners. The company is developing a device to aid in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases by removing toxic proteins from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
DUBLIN – Neotx Therapeutics Ltd. raised $45 million in a series C round to continue clinical development of an immuno-oncology agent that already has a long clinical history behind it. Its lead molecule, naptumomab estafenatox, is a fusion protein comprising an antibody fragment that recognizes the oncofetal antigen 5T4 and a bacterial “super-antigen” comprising a modified version of the Staphylococcal enterotoxin A.
HONG KONG – South Korea’s AI-based biotech venture, Kaipharm Co. Ltd. has secured ₩5 billion (US$4.22 million) in series A funding. Founded in 2018, the firm has attracted a total of ₩7 billion in investments. Kaipharm will generate a reference dataset of 2,000 drugs (KMAP_2K) using next-generation sequencing (NGS). The dataset will include all the FDA-approved drugs to date.
HONG KONG – South Korea’s venture capital investment in the biopharma and medical sector set a new record in 2019. According to Korea Venture Capital Association (KVCA), local VC firms invested ₩1.1 trillion (US$930 million) over a total of 299 bio and medical ventures last year, representing 25.8% of the total VC investment executed in 2019.