Money on the Move: May 5 – 11 – BioSpace

Catch up on the investment news quickly with BioSpace'sbrief overview of the biotech companies hitting the Nasdaq and raking in fresh cash the past week.

GingkoBioworks

Going public is all the rage in the biotech space, and GingkoBioworksis taking the fast train via special acquisition company (SPAC) Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp.Theorganism company has its hand in a variety of markets, starting in fragrance, then food and agriculture and since expanding into antibiotics, vaccines, therapeutics and enzymes. The company landed a$1.1 billion loan for COVID-19 testing and to manufacture raw materials forpotentialtherapies last year. This SPAC deal isone of the biggest,expectingto raise$2.5 billioninproceedsandvaluing the combined company at $17.5 billion.

Science 37

Also jumping aboard the SPAC train isclinical trial companyScience 37. Merging withLifeSciAcquisitions II Corp to hit the Nasdaq, the deal will raise$280 million in gross proceedsand leave the company with a valuation of over $1 billion.Science 37 conducts decentralized clinical studies for clients and has 95 trials under its belt since itsinception in 2014. Funds from the merger will be usedto finance its decentralized trial technology platform, extend into new adjacencies, and power the next generation in clinical research.Science 37 intends to establish a Diversity in Clinical Research Foundation to make clinical trial research more accessible to underserved patient populations.

NuvalentInc.

Less than four months afteremerging from stealth modewith $50 million in the pocket, cancer startupNuvalentcompleted another financing round, this time in a$135 million Series B.The sole investor in the companys launch, Deerfield Management, participated with round leader Bain Capital Life Sciences and some new investors.Funds are funneling into the companys lead programs: NVL-520 and NVL-655. Each a potentially best-in-class kinase inhibitor, the first targets ROS1-driven tumors and the other ALK-driven. Both drugs are in IND enabling studies and are designed to address the identified clinical needs of kinase selectivity, brain penetrance, and activity against drug resistance.

Aetion

Using technology to understand the safety, efficacy, and value of drugs in the real world, RWE leaderAetionscooped up a$110 million Series Cto advance its Evidence Platform.Having raised $212 million to date,Aetionclose to doubled revenue last year while retaining 100% of current customers and adding new. The New York-based health care company landed the first collaboration agreement with the FDA to study COVID-19 research. In addition to growing the capabilities of theAetionEvidence Platform, the company will also expand its European and Asian-Pacific footprint and increase its commercial team to meet growing demand from the majority of top global biopharma firms and leading regulatory agencies.

Jasper Therapeutics

Taking the SPAC route to the Nasdaq, Jasper iscombining with Amplitude Health Acquisition Corp.The deal keeps up to $100million in a trust at Amplitude along with a public investment in private equity financing of another $100million. Leadprogram, JSP191is currently in an early-stage safety trial for patients withacute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes and severe combined immunodeficiency.Cash from the deal will advance JSP191 through clinical developmentand also advance the companys preclinical Engineered Hematopoietic Stem Cell (eHSCs) platform. Using mRNA or DNA editing, the platform is designed to overcome the biggest limitations ofallogeneic and autologous gene-edited stem cell grafts.

Dyno Therapeutics

Sinceemerging from stealth modein 2020 with multiple collaborations in place with big pharma companies, Dyno Therapeutics now bolstered its research with$100 millionraised in a Series A financing round.The Cambridge companyis advancing itsCapsidMapplatform, which leverages the power of artificial intelligence to improve the design of gene therapies and make them safer, more effectiveand applicable to more diseases.Funds from the Series A will be used to expand theCapsidMapplatform to broaden the functionality and improve the therapeutic impact of the gene therapies developed by its partners, Novartis, Roche and Sarepta Therapeutics.

Day One Biopharmaceuticals

San Francisco-basedDay One Biopharmaceuticalsis taking the more traditional route tothe market with a$100 million IPO.Founded in 2018, the biotech hasraised $190 million in the last 12 monthsalone.Its first drug, aimed at pediatric cancer in the brain, isa brain-penetrating,highly selective type II pan-rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma kinase inhibitor designed to fight brain and spine cancers. A Phase II trial is anticipated soon forchildrenwithrelapsed or progressivelow-gradeglioma, the most common brain tumor for kids.The hope is for an NDAfilingin 2023.

Valneva

French vaccine developer Valneva went public this week, completing a$93.5 million IPO.Valnevahas a COVID-19 vaccine in the pipeline. Its stock prices were bolstered recently as big-name Moderna andBioNTechfell amidstPresident Bidens announcement insupport of waivingthe intellectual propertyprotections for COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to stop the pandemic.Valnevaplans to use the proceeds to developits COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001, andtwo additional vaccines one to prevent Lyme disease and another to fight chikungunya virus, usually spread by mosquitos.

CellaresCorporation

Automating cell therapy manufacturing,Cellaresraked in an$82 million Series Alast week, bringingfunding to $100 million to date.The fresh dollars will support the development of the companys factory-in-a-box.Cellaris Cell Shuttle enables complete automation ofhighly individualized cell therapies, including the increasingly popular CAR-T therapies which use the patients own immune system to attack blood cancer cells.This automated solution would cut costs forautologous celltherapies by up to 75%and can produce 10 patient doses simultaneously, significantly reducing the time from initial cell extraction to treatment.

Esker Therapeutics

Focused on precision therapies for autoimmune diseases, thisForesite-labs incubated company launched last week with a$70 million Series A.The companys precision analyticsplatform is made up of high-quality curated genetic, clinical and medical record data, a systems immunology approach for prospective data collections and tools for building patient registries. Its lead product ESK-001, a highly selective TYK2 inhibitor with greater selectivity for TYK2 over JAK1, is currently in a Phase I trial for psoriasis.

AlebundPharmaceuticals

Renal disease-focusedAlebundscooped up$60 million in a Series Bround this week. The fresh funds will be harnessed to further drive the companys focus on renal disease, a health condition with a fairly high prevalence in China. The raised funding represents a record for financing raised during a single round by any other Chinese nephrology-related biopharmaceutical company.Current pipeline candidates target renal chronic kidney disease (CKD)/dialysis complications, IgA nephropathy, diabetic kidney disease, and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

AppioBio

Jumping into the cell therapy fray this week is newcomer Appia Bio. Backed by a$52 million Series A, thecompanyhopes to bringcelltherapy to more peoplewith moreoff-the-shelf treatments, which are typically far more affordable.Appia is developing engineered allogeneic cell therapies from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for cancer patients. Its ACUA platform utilizes the biology of lymphocyte development with CAR and TCR gene engineering to produce CAR-engineered invariant natural killer T (CAR-iNKT) cells from HSCs.

Adaptive Phage Therapeutics

Every year 35,000 Americans die from antibiotic-resistant superbugs.Adaptive Phage Therapeuticsis fighting back with bacteriophage therapies, and landed a$40.75 million Series Bto fund the war. Deerfield Management took the lead on this round, joined by existing investor Mayo Clinic.Funds from this round will be used to advance clinical-stage programs in prosthetic joint infection and diabetic foot osteomyelitis. Further development of thePhageBankSusceptibility Test, a tool to rapidly identify which phage therapy is needed for a specific condition, is also moving ahead.

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Money on the Move: May 5 - 11 - BioSpace