The health care- and technology-focused venture capital firm Polaris Partners – an active investor in biopharmaceutical companies – disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has begun the process of raising its ninth fund with the goal of bringing in $400m.
Finance Watch: Polaris Piles On As Multiple Life Science VCs Raise New Funds
Private Company Edition: Polaris is raising up to $400m for its next tech and health care fund, following in the footsteps of several life science investors this year. Also, Nevakar raises $50m in a product financing agreement and RAPT closes a $37m series C extension.

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Public Company Edition: Stock valuations are falling due to political, economic and regulatory uncertainty, resulting in fewer large public offerings, more alternative financings and cost cuts. Carisma, Tenaya, BioAtla, Arbutus, Nkarta, Alector and Adaptimmune announced layoffs.
CEO Kris Elverum told Scrip about the start-up’s platform for editing RNA to correct genetic variants that cause harm and to reproduce healthy variants as a means of treating disease.
The four-year-old firm said it plans to advance programs toward the clinic from the funding round, which comes just over a year after signing two major pharma partnerships.
Private Company Edition: The latest group of drug developers to announce venture capital financings is remarkable for its geographic diversity, from Character Biosciences’ $93m series B round in the US to Augustine’s $85m series B in Belgium to a $29.2m series C for Aculys in Japan.
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