Zap Surgical Systems Inc. reported closing a $78 million series E funding round led by Qingdao Baheal Medical Inc., with participation from other strategic investors. The new funds will be used to commercialize the company’s Zap-X gyroscopic radiosurgery platform for the non-invasive treatment of brain tumors.
Alzheon Inc. has raised $100 million in a series E financing round to push its oral drug candidate for early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), ALZ-801 (valiltramiprosate), through a late-stage, Apolloe4 study.
A precancerous condition caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) affects up to 300,000 American women who are diagnosed each year, and yet there are no treatments, just preventive vaccines introduced in 2006 – targeted to younger generations prior to the first sexual encounter. That leaves a large proportion of the female population stuck with a “wait-and-see” approach that involves continuous monitoring of their HPV infection through pap smears to detect cellular changes that could lead to cervical cancer. South San Francisco-based Antiva Biosciences Inc. is seeking to find a better response to this condition known as high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2,3) with its lead topical therapeutic, ABI-2280, a prodrug of an acyclic nucleoside phosphonate that is currently in phase I trials.
Therapy delivery and the physicians who administer them are keys in CG Oncology Inc.’s drive to develop bladder cancer treatments. The company, which just closed an oversubscribed $120 million series E financing to continue on the development path, has its lead oncolytic immunotherapy, CG-0070, intravesically delivered via a catheter, in the clinic.
Microtransponder Inc. raked in $53 million in an oversubscribed series E round that exceeded its best previous fundraising by nearly 500% and brought the company’s total funds raised to date to $93 million. The new money will be used to commercialize the Vivistim paired VNS system, which received premarket approval in 2021 as what the FDA called the “first stroke rehabilitation option using vagus nerve stimulation.”
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.
Visby Medical Inc. reeled in more than $100 million in a series E round led by Ping An Voyager Partners. The funds will be used to scale production capacity of Visby’s instrument-free, single-use real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) platform from tens to hundreds of thousands of tests per month.
Color Health Inc. followed its rainbow to another pot of gold, collecting $100 million in a series E financing round led by Kindred Ventures and funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. Returning funding round participants also included General Catalyst, the company’s long-time lead investor, Viking Global Investors and Emerson Collective. With the latest cash infusion, the company’s total funds raised to date reached $378 million and its valuation of $4.6 billion propelled it into the top dozen health care unicorns. Founded in 2017 as Color Genomics, the Burlingame, Calif.-based company has raised more than two-thirds of its total funding this year with today’s series E following the close of a $167 million series D round in January.
Digital musculoskeletal health company Hinge Health Inc. kicked its fundraising into high gear this year, reporting $400 million in a series E round and $200 million in a secondary investment today. It closed a $300 million series D just last January. The San Francisco-based company has now raised more than $1 billion and achieved a valuation in excess of $6.2 billion. Returning investors Tiger Global and Coatue Management led the series E, while new investors Alkeon and Whale Rock took a stake in the company with their $200 million. Investors in the series D and previous rounds included Atomico, Insight Partners, Quadrille, 11.2 Capital, Lead Edge Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Heuristic Capital.
Just five days after raising $105 million in a series E financing round, RNA interference therapeutics specialist Sirnaomics Inc. obtained another IND approval from the FDA for its dual-targeting small interfering RNA (siRNA) inhibitor STP-707 to start a basket study in oncology. Sirnaomics’ CEO Patrick Lu told BioWorld in an exclusive interview that an I.V. administration of STP-707 will be tested to tackle solid cancers that may have metastasized into other potential areas or tissue types in the body.
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