Venture Capital Deals At A Glance
Company	Financing
Walking Fish Therapeutics; South San Francisco	With new financing from Northpond Ventures and First Spark Ventures with support from Terra Magnum Capital Partners, Walking Fish has increased the size of its series A round to $73m. The company launched with $50m in September to develop B-cell therapeutics for cancer, rare diseases, regenerative medicine, autoimmune diseases and recombinant antibody production. (Also see "Five Prime Founder Rusty Williams Returns With Walking Fish Therapeutics" - Scrip, 14 September, 2021.)
Terray Therapeutics; Pasadena, CA	Terray launched on 15 February with a $60m series A round led by Madrona Venture Group; the company previously raised a $20m seed round. The start-up will use the proceeds to advance its tNova platform for rapid small molecule drug discovery that combines artificial intelligence and machine learning with novel chemical datasets generated by Terray’s ultra-dense microarray technology. The company will also advance its preclinical programs and discovery partnerships.
Memo Therapeutics AG; Schlieren, Switzerland	The Swiss antibody discovery firm said on 15 February that its series B round has increased to CHF37m ($40.1m) with CHF23m ($24.9m) in new investments from several additional backers. Memo raised its first CHF14m ($15.6m) in November 2020. (Also see "Finance Watch: Billions In And Billions Out In Venture Capital Fundraising" - Scrip, 13 November, 2020.) The company continues to advance COVAB 36 for COVID-19, for which it recently received CHF10.5m in funding from the Swiss government. However, Memo will use its new venture funding primarily to advance MTX-005 – an antibody targeting BK virus infection in renal transplant patients – through Phase II clinical development.
NMD Pharma A/S; Aarhus, Denmark	NMD revealed a €35m ($39.8m) financing on 15 February with Jeito Capital as the lead investor. The company is developing small molecule CLC-1 inhibitors for neuromuscular disorders and will use its new funding to progress lead candidate NMD670 through completion of an ongoing Phase IIa proof-of-concept trial in myasthenia gravis. NMD also plans to expand its clinical development pipeline into new diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy, and expand its drug discovery efforts. The company raised a €38m ($47m) series A round in 2018. (Also see "Finance Watch: Hua Medicine Raises $117.4m While Evaluating A Hong Kong IPO" - Scrip, 6 April, 2018.)
Renibus Therapeutics Inc.; Southlake, TX	With a focus on the prevention and treatment of cardio-renal diseases, Renibus said on 15 February that the company has extended its series A round by $15m to $35m and hired Frank Stonebanks as its CEO. Stonebanks previously was a venture partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health LP but is a four-time biotech company CEO and two-time company founder; he was founder and CEO of Celgene Corporation-acquired Triphase LP. (Also see "Billions On The Line With Celgene’s Partnered Pipeline" - Scrip, 27 January, 2017.) Renibus is testing RBT-1 in acute kidney injury prevention in a study of 126 patients undergoing cardiac surgery, with plans to begin a Phase I trial for chronic kidney disease candidate RBT-2 later this year and plans to start a Phase III trial in the third quarter for RBT-3 in iron-deficient anemia.
Centauri Therapeutics Ltd.; London	Centauri revealed a £24m ($32.6m) series A round on 16 February to fund its antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development with the Alphamer platform for the discovery and development of novel antibacterial candidates. Drugs developed with the Alphamer technology have a unique mechanism that recruits and directs pre-existing antibodies to pathogens, engaging both innate and adaptive immunity to clear an infection. Centauri partnered with Horizon Discovery Ltd in 2016 to spin out a new company called Avvinity Therapeutics to use the Alphamer platform to develop therapies that redirect antibodies against cancer. (Also see "Horizon, Centauri Going to Avvinity And Beyond In New Immuno-Oncology JV" - Scrip, 4 March, 2016.)
ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE; Munich	The German developer of targeted radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer said on 16 February that Hong Kong-based Grand Pharmaceutical Group Limited made a €25m ($28.4m) equity investment in ITM to strengthen the companies’ existing collaboration and accelerate the development of precision oncology treatments and diagnostics in Greater China. The firms entered into an agreement related to two radiopharmaceuticals and a diagnostic in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan at the end of 2021. (Also see "Asia Deal Watch: Hanmi Licenses Greater China Rights To Dry AMD Injectable To AffaMed" - Scrip, 6 January, 2022.)
Teclison Ltd.; Princeton, NJ and Taipei, Taiwan	Teclison said on 14 February that it will use its recently completed $5.9m financing to fund the ongoing clinical development of its lead drug candidate TEC-001, which is designed to induce tumor necrosis and enhance immune checkpoint inhibitors in solid cancers with liver metastasis. The drug is being tested in Phase II as a monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors in liver, colorectal and lung cancers, including under a clinical trial and collaboration agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. for use of Keytruda (pembrolizumab).

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