Finance Watch: Notable Neuroscience VC Deals Include Nura Bio’s $73m Launch

Private Company Edition: Several drug developers targeting neurological diseases raised venture capital recently. In addition to Nura Bio, Encoded Therapeutics revealed a $135m series D round. Also, Longwood closed a $170m fund and Flagship launched Omega Therapeutics with $85m.

Finance Watch

Venture capital investment in biopharmaceutical companies is booming in 2020. And while novel cancer and immuno-oncology programs continue to attract large sums, drug developers working on treatments for neurological diseases also are raising sizeable venture rounds. Among six companies with recently announced financings, Nura Bio Inc. launched with $73m in series A cash and Encoded Therapeutics Inc. closed a $135m series D round. 

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AIRNA To Take RNA Editing Into The Clinic With $155m Series B Round

 
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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.

Isomorphic Adds To Growing AI War Chest With First External Funding Round

 

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.

Finance Watch: European And Japanese Biotechs See VC Investor Interest In March

 
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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.

Japan T-Reg Venture RegCell Raises New Funds, Relocates To US

 
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Kyoto-based venture moves HQ to California to expand R&D and business outreach for its regulatory T-cell technology, as it raises around $46m in public and private funding.

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Stock Watch: How Tariff Threat Might Boost Pharma Q1

 
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Supply chain disruption fears at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused drug over-ordering. Imminent tariffs on drugs may have had a similar effect on pharma sales in Q1 earnings season.

Peter Marks’ Departure From FDA Rattles Biopharma Industry

 
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Stock prices plummeted, particularly for vaccine makers and cell and gene therapy developers, after the US FDA’s top biologics overseer resigned over vaccine misinformation concerns.

Vertex Ends One Type 1 Diabetes Cell Therapy, Shifts Focus To Another

 
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Seeking cell therapy approaches to cure type 1 diabetes, Vertex abandons a candidate encapsulated to avoid immune system detection but hopes to file another candidate for approval in 2026.