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.
The sprint of fighting COVID-19 has been in respiratory medicine. For patients who become acutely ill, the short-term danger is in respiratory failure. But increasingly, it seems like the pandemic’s marathon fight may come to be against the neurological symptoms of COVID-19.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Abl, Angany, Contrafect, Arcus, Ascendis, Athenex, Atriva, Atyr, Biovaxys, Beximco, Cstone, Dotbio, Edigene, Eisai, Gamida, Gilead, Huyabio, I-Mab, Imvax, Massachusetts General Hospital, Merck & Co., Ridgeback, Shanghai, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Washington University School of Medicine.
LONDON – PCR point of care testing specialist Quantumdx Group Ltd. is poised to accelerate its commercial development in China, after the Hong Kong venture capital fund Vita Spring made a £15 million (US$20.3 million) equity investment.
New positive phase III study results for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s COVID-19 monoclonal antibody cocktail show a single dose reduced the risk of contracting the virus by 81.6% during a two- to eight-month follow-up period. The strong data go along with Pfizer Inc.’s recent positive results for its oral antiviral, Paxlovid, hinting that COVID-19 therapeutics could begin cutting into powerful mRNA vaccine margins from Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE and Moderna Inc.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Bharat, Novavax, Nrx, Ocugen, Opiant, Tris.