What does the landscape look like in terms of funding for digital health? Geoffrey Starr, a partner at Cooley LLP, dove into this question during the Digital Health Summit, part of CES 2020. He acknowledged that 2019 saw a slight dip in funding compared with the record-breaking previous year. With that said, it was the second largest year ever for digital health care financings, with more than one-third of all health care venture financings involving digital health technologies.
HONG KONG – South Korean-based med-tech Lunit Inc., of Seoul, has secured ₩30 billion (US$25.6 million) in series C funding. Founded in 2013, the Korean company has raised $50 million so far. Lunit’s corporate value was evaluated at as much as ₩200 billion as of the fundraising.
It’s a big day for privately held Empirico Inc. as it embarks on a massive combo pharma deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. while racking up a $17 million series A-2 financing.
Surgical robotics company Virtual Incision Corp., of Lincoln, Neb., has raised $20 million in a series B+ financing led by returning investor Bluestem Capital. The funds are earmarked for clinical and regulatory programs aimed at commercializing the company’s MIRA (miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant) surgical robotic platform.
Adagene Inc., an immuno-oncology company with operations in both the U.S. and China, has raised a $69 million series D financing to support its development of two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and extension of its technology-driven in-house antibody design platform. Its two lead candidates are a phase I MAb targeting CD137 and a preclinical MAb targeting CTLA4.
With a newly raised $60 million series B financing, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to start a phase IIb/III trial of its lead product, TP-03, for treating demodex blepharitis, and to jumpstart two other clinical programs.