Finance Watch: Atlas Raises $450m Venture Fund For Biotech Breakthroughs

VC Cash Continues To Flow Despite Public Market Woes

Both Atlas and Foresite Capital announced new funds focused on start-ups. Also, Flagship launched Vesalius with $75m in initial funding, Innoviva sold $225m in notes, Hookipa priced a $75m follow-on offering and job cuts were revealed by Epizyme, Flexion, Deciphera and Gemini. 

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Atlas Venture added more fuel to its biotechnology start-up engine with a $450m fund announced on 3 March, which the venture capital firm will invest in new companies developing novel therapeutics and building innovative drug discovery and development platforms across a wide variety of diseases. The cash infusion for emerging firms comes despite a pullback in public markets that has made it more difficult for growth-stage biotechs to raise cash.

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