In a time when biotechs are finding it tough to raise funds, Alentis Therapeutics has topped up its already-sizeable cash pile with the addition of a couple of heavyweight healthcare investors to advance its anti-fibrotic candidates through the clinic.
Alentis Adds To Bank Balance And Rides The Claudin Wave
Series C Raises $105m
While most of the R&D attention in the hot space of claudins has focused on targeting CLDN18.2, the Swiss biotech believes its CLDN1 programs have the advantage of a broader expression profile.

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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.
Private Company Edition: The latest group of drug developers to announce venture capital financings is remarkable for its geographic diversity, from Character Biosciences’ $93m series B round in the US to Augustine’s $85m series B in Belgium to a $29.2m series C for Aculys in Japan.
Kyoto-based venture moves HQ to California to expand R&D and business outreach for its regulatory T-cell technology, as it raises around $46m in public and private funding.
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After failing a Phase II monotherapy study in early Parkinson’s, Cerevance will focus on adjunctive therapy without abandoning the monotherapy concept.
The firm has lofty ambitions for the aldosterone synthase inhibitor to treat hypertension and kidney disease.
Supply chain disruption fears at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused drug over-ordering. Imminent tariffs on drugs may have had a similar effect on pharma sales in Q1 earnings season.