Two new venture capital funds were announced a day apart during the last week of June, each with $200m to fund early-stage biotechnology companies, though only one is exclusively focused on drug developers.
Finance Watch: Vertex Ventures, Chugai Each Raise New $200m VC Funds
Vesalius Raises €95m For Fourth Fund
Private Company Edition: Vertex Ventures (not Vertex Pharmaceuticals) closed its third fund, with $200m for life science and medical technologies, while Chugai’s $200m corporate VC fund will invest in drug discovery start-ups. Also, K36 closed a $70m series B round and Attovia launched with $60m.

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Public Company Edition: Stock valuations are falling due to political, economic and regulatory uncertainty, resulting in fewer large public offerings, more alternative financings and cost cuts. Carisma, Tenaya, BioAtla, Arbutus, Nkarta, Alector and Adaptimmune announced layoffs.
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.
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