Finance Watch: Big Money For Private Biopharma As Start-Up Areteia Raises $350m

Knopp Biosciences LLC and the private equity firm Population Health Partners launched Areteia Therapeutics Inc. on July 12 with up to $350m to take Knopp’s dexpramipexole into Phase III clinical trials in eosinophilic asthma. It’s a new chapter for the oral small molecule, which Knopp had previously licensed to Biogen, Inc. more than a decade ago but failed in a Phase III trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Bain Capital Life Sciences, another private equity heavy hitter, led the late-stage start-up’s series A funding round with participation from Population Health, Access Biotechnology, GV, ARCH Venture Partners,