March has been a big month for venture capital mega-rounds of $100m or more and Flare Therapeutics Inc. continued the trend, announcing 22 March that it completed a $123m series B round to fund discovery and development of precision medicines that target transcription factors. Flare, which had big pharma backing for its mega-round, will take its first drug candidate into the clinic this year.
Finance Watch: Another VC Mega-Round As Flare Raises $123m Series B
Lead Program Moves Into Clinic Two Years After Series A
Private Company Edition: Flare Therapeutics, targeting transcription factors to discover precision medicines, had big pharma backing for its second venture capital financing. Also, Mediar closed a $10m series A round, Switch launched with $52m and EpiBiologics raised a $50m series A 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.
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.
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There were six biopharma initial public offerings on Western stock exchanges, including five in the US, during the first quarter, but plunging stock values could halt further IPOs.