DUBLIN – Compass Pathways Ltd. raised $80 million in a series B round to continue its development of the psychedelic drug psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression.
With completion of a $120 million series B financing, Affinivax Inc. said it's poised to advance several new vaccine candidates for hospital-associated infections into the clinic even as its partner, Astellas Pharma Inc., carries its lead pneumococcal vaccine candidate, ASP-3772, through an upcoming phase III program.
Privately held Cerevance Inc., of Boston, raised $45 million in a series B designed to propel the discovery and development of therapies for treating CNS diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Backers in Tango Therapeutics Inc.’s $60 million series B round represent “a group of really smart crossovers who normally don’t come in quite this early” and “hung in there” during some especially hard times on Wall Street recently, CEO Barbara Weber told BioWorld. “We were about to sign the term sheet the first time the market crashed, which was a little nerve-wracking.”
Digital mental health startup Silvercloud Health Inc. has scooped up $16 million in a series B round led by Memorialcare Innovation Fund. The Boston-based company plans to use the funds to grow program offerings in North America, enhance its global portfolio and conduct new research and clinical trials. LRV Ventures, OSF Ventures and Unitypoint Health Ventures also participated in the round, along with existing investors Act Venture Capital and B Capital Group. With this latest round, Silvercloud has raised a total of $30 million.
LONDON – Immuno-oncology specialist Iteos Therapeutics Inc. raised $125 million in the second tranche of its series B, bringing the total for the round to $175 million and fueling clinical development of a pipeline of drugs targeting PD-1 resistance.
Kendall Square was a great jumping-off point for Cambridge, Mass.’s Pandion Therapeutics Inc. but with an $80 million series B in its pocket, the time has come to pick up sticks to accommodate its growth.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Elevatebio LLC has triple-pronged plans for its $170 million series B round, which the company said will be directed toward manufacturing cell and gene therapies, enabling new technology platforms, and pursuing therapeutics.
Lessons learned from development of hepatitis C therapies could be applied to the underserved hepatitis B population, potentially leading to a functional cure through a combination of optimized drugs that attack the virus from different angles. That is the mission of 2-year-old Aligos Therapeutics Inc., a South San Francisco-based startup focused on liver-related diseases.
Liquid biopsy has long been seen as key to the future of cancer diagnostics, treatment and even potentially prevention. But now, startup Karius Inc. has staked out its claim as the first to bring cell-free DNA analysis, which is often used in oncology and prenatal liquid biopsy applications, into the clinic for infectious disease detection, identification and treatment guidance.