Venture Capital Deals At A Glance
Company	Financing
Hexagon Bio; Menlo Park, CA	Hexagon is focused on the discovery of medicines encoded in the global metagenome. Its platform brings together machine learning, genomics, chemistry and synthetic biology, and it is applicable to a variety of therapeutic areas. The company said on 14 February that it will use the series B proceeds to expand its team, broaden its platform capabilities, and identify lead infectious disease and oncology drug candidates.
Halda Therapeutics; Hew Haven, CT	Halda is developing Regulated Induced Proximity Targeting Chimeras (RIPTAC) therapeutics and came out of stealth mode on 14 February to reveal its first RIPTAC candidate, an orally available, androgen receptor-targeting bispecific drug candidate for prostate cancer. The company also announced that it has raised $76m to date and built a pipeline of small molecule anti-cancer drug candidates, including two lead candidates for the treatment of solid tumors. Its founder is Yale University professor Craig Crews, a pioneer in induced proximity biology that lead to the creation of PROteolysis Targeted Chimeras (PROTAC) small molecule drugs. His team engineered RIPTACs to overcome mechanisms of cancer drug resistance.
Garuda Therapeutics; Cambridge, MA	Garuda is developing off-the-shelf blood stem cell therapies and said on 7 February that it will use its series B financing to advance its technology for the treatment of hematological diseases toward the clinic. It also will advance blood stem cells as treatments for cancer and its HLA-matched induced pluripotent stem cells, which are being developed to broaden eligibility of patients and increase access to blood and other cellular therapies.
Cerevance Inc.; Boston	Scrip spoke with Cerevance CEO Craig Thompson in June about the company’s efforts at the time to raise a series C round in a tough financing market. (Also see "BIO 2022 Notebook: Staying Afloat In Rough Waters" - Scrip, 15 June, 2022.) On 13 February, however, the company announced that it expanded its $65m series B round from 2020 by $51m, bringing the total to $116m. (Also see "Finance Watch: Notable Neuroscience VC Deals Include Nura Bio’s $73m Launch" - Scrip, 4 August, 2020.) Between June and now, however, the company also received $25m up front from Merck & Co., Inc. under an Alzheimer’s disease collaboration worth up to $1.1bn. (Also see "Merck Takes A New Shot At Alzheimer’s With Cerevance Deal" - Scrip, 10 August, 2022.) The series B extension proceeds will fund a Phase II clinical trial starting in the second quarter of 2023 for GPR6 inverse agonist CVN424 in Parkinson’s disease, a Phase II trial starting in the fourth quarter of 2023 for orexin 1 receptor antagonist CVN766 for negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, and a Phase I trial for KCNK13 blocker CVN293 for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (Also see "Cerevance’s First-In-Class Parkinson’s Candidate Shows Phase II Promise" - Scrip, 31 March, 2022.)
IgGenix, Inc.; South San Francisco	IgGenix announced the first close of a $40m series B financing on 6 February. The proceeds will fund a Phase I trial of its lead peanut allergy program and finance expansion of the company’s platform to encompass other IgE-mediated diseases beyond allergy. IgGenix’s platform addresses severe allergic reactions by reengineering IgE monoclonal antibodies to block and prevent allergic reactions. The company raised a $25m series A1 round in July 2021. (Also see "Finance Watch: A Summer Slowdown? Not For Venture Capital Mega-Rounds" - Scrip, 6 August, 2021.)
Avilar Therapeutics; Waltham, MA	Avilar came out of stealth mode in November 2021 with a $60m seed financing commitment, including $40m in an initial tranche. (Also see "Finance Watch: Venture Capital Drives Record-Breaking Year For Cell And Gene Therapies" - Scrip, 25 November, 2021.) Now, between $20m from the last tranche of that first seed funding commitment from RA Capital Management and $15m in new capital from Sanofi Ventures, Astellas Venture Management and Medical Excellence Capital, the seed round has grown to $75m, the company said on 16 February. Avilar will use the proceeds to advance multiple extracellular protein degraders for autoimmune, neurological and other diseases.
Prokarium; London	The company is developing microbial immunotherapies based on a proprietary strain of Salmonella for the treatment of cancer and said on 9 February that it raised $30m, which follows a $21m series B round in 2020. (Also see "Finance Watch: Three New Life Science VC Funds Total Nearly $1bn" - Scrip, 30 October, 2020.) The new funding will support a clinical trial initiating this year in the treatment of bladder cancer. Under a partnership announced with Ginkgo Bioworks in January, Prokarium hopes to expand the reach of its immunotherapy platform. (Also see "Deal Watch: AbbVie Leads J.P. Morgan Deal Rush, But BI, Genentech And Lilly Also Big Players" - Scrip, 11 January, 2023.)
Codagenix Inc.; Farmingdale, NY and Cambridge, MA	Codagenix, a synthetic biology specialist with a rational virus design platform for live-attenuated viral vaccines and immuno-oncology therapeutics, said on 15 February that it completed a $25m series B extension. The cash will fund clinical development of CodaVax-RSV, an intranasal vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that will move into a pediatric Phase I trial in early 2023. (Also see "Codagenix Eyes '23 Nasal RSV Vaccine Readout As GSK, Pfizer Set To Establish Lead" - Scrip, 10 November, 2022.) It will also fund additional cohorts in an ongoing Phase I study for CodaVax-H1N1, an influenza vaccine, and expansion of the company's oncology program – based on its platform for rational, indication-focused virotherapeutics – to new indications.
TILT Biotherapeutics Ltd.; Helsinki	The Finnish cancer immunotherapy developer said on 7 February that it completed the final close of its €22m ($23.6m) funding round, which follows a €10m first close in June 2022. (Also see "Finance Watch: Venture Floodgates Open With New Funds, Dozens Of Rounds" - Scrip, 27 June, 2022.) The cash will allow TILT to take its armed oncolytic adenoviruses into Phase II trials in combination with checkpoint inhibitors.
Alloplex Biotherapeutics, Inc.; Woburn, MA	The company, which is developing tumor-agnostic cellular therapies, disclosed in a 13 February filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has raised $20.67m of a planned $25m financing round. Alloplex’s SUPLEXA cells are being tested in a Phase I clinical trial; the patient-derived cells consist of natural killer (NK), CD8- and CD4-positive T-cells, and gamma delta T-cells.
EuMentis Therapeutics; Boston	Focused on neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, EuMentis said on 15 February that it closed the first $20m of a planned $40m series B round. The company will use the proceeds to advance novel, uncompetitive, fast-off NMDA receptor agonist EM-113 into a Phase II clinical trial in a subset of autism spectrum disorder patients with elevated glutamate levels in the brain and accelerate development of earlier-stage fast-off NMDA receptor antagonist candidates through completion of Phase I clinical trials. The completed series B round will fund a Phase II trial of EM-221, a PDE10A inhibitor, in Tourette syndrome. Both Phase II studies are expected to start in the secondhalf of 2023.
Maxion Therapeutics; Cambridge, UK	Maxion said on 15 February that it completed a $16m (£13m) series A financing to fund its development of novel biologics that target ion channels and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) with its KnotBody technology platform. Founder and CEO John McCafferty previously co-founded CAT, which was acquired by AstraZeneca PLC for £700m in 2006, and Iontas Ltd, purchased by FairJourney Biologics in 2020.

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