Delfi Diagnostics, Cork, Areteia Therapeutics
Cork firm Normax secures €300m to make cheaper mRNA vaccines
Irish biotech company Normax Biomed has secured a €300m funding commitment to develop low-cost mRNA vaccines around the world.
The funding will be used to create modular mRNA vaccine factories, with the goal to eventually scale to up to 100 locations. Normax plans to push forward the global R&D of vaccines for a wide range of diseases such as Covid-19, tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.
It plans to open a €30m manufacturing plant in Cork, which will be one of the company’s first facilities and will create 200 jobs, The Business Post reports.
Normax intends to develop mRNA vaccines at up to 100 factories globally, with the goal of eventually bringing them to market at $4 per dose.
Cork firm Normax secures €300m to make cheaper mRNA vaccines
Normax intends to create 100 mRNA vaccines from 100 global factories, with the goal of eventually bringing them to market at $4 per dose.
Spain’s Impress Raises $125M As Teeth Alignment Procedures Become More Common
Barcelona-based teeth alignment startup Impress reported it raised $125 million in Series B funding provided by health care-focused Norgine Ventures, LBO France and Claret Capital Partners, bringing total funding to $155.8 million.
It’s one of many startups in the orthodontics space tackling pandemic-fueled cosmetic dissatisfaction called the “Zoom Effect.” The never-ending Zoom meetings have allowed people to pay more attention to what they look like, and are now more conscious about otherwise-forgotten crooked teeth or small gaps.
Impress, which makes a clear teeth aligner to alleviate the need for traditional braces, employs a hybrid model where patients can connect with their doctor in-person or via the app and book appointments or do virtual oral scans. The 3-year-old startup has 130 clinics scattered across eight countries in Europe (80% of which are profitable, it says), and plans to use the new funding to expand in-person clinics and production facilities for its clear aligner. Invisalign maker Align Technology and direct-to-consumer SmileDirectClub have long claimed the invisible teeth aligner market in the U.S. But there are problems with this model: Teeth alignment also affects the jaw and neck, and often requires professional monitoring beyond what to-your-doorstep kits allow.
https://news.crunchbase.com/business/spains-impress-raises-125m-teeth/Areteia Therapeutics Raises $350M To Create An Oral Asthma Treatment
The first oral drug for eosinophilic asthma patients may be on the horizon.
Asthma-focused Areteia Therapeutics launched this week with $350 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Life Sciences. Maverick Capital, Sanofi and Access Biotechnology participated in the round.
Areteia, led by former Johnson & Johnson executive Jorge Bartolome, is the brainchild of Knopp Biosciences and Population Health Partners, an equity firm that focuses on life sciences ventures.
The company was spun out of Pennsylvania-based Knopp, which published results from its phase 2 clinical trial last year that showed its oral drug candidate could reduce the count of blood eosinophil, which is an indication of improving lung function and is found in several asthma-related treatments.
Areteia’s news marks the largest funding round in the space of asthma- and respiratory-related startups in the past year, according to Crunchbase data. Texas-based ReCode Therapeutics raised $280 million in Series B financing over a period of eight months, and Massachusetts-based Upstream Bio raised $200 million in Series A funding in June.
Around half of the world’s asthma patients have eosinophilic asthma, which limits airflow in the lungs. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America estimates asthma costs the health care system around $50 million a year in clinician labor and hospital resources. While most patients find inhaled or oral corticosteroid helpful, those products are linked to adverse side effects. Some patients opt to take biologics—treatments made with living organisms—which make up 15% of the moderate-to-severe asthma market.
The fresh funding will allow Areteia to take Knopp’s drug candidate through phase 3 clinical trials and investigate new medicines.
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/asthma-treatment-startup-areteia-bain-capital/Delfi Diagnostics Raises $225M in Series B Financing
Delfi Diagnostics, Inc., a Palo Alto, CA- and Baltimore, MD-based developer of a new class of high-performance, accessible liquid biopsy tests for early cancer detection and monitoring, raised USD225m in Series B funding.
This round was led by DFJ Growth with participation from Eli Lilly and Company, Point72, Brown Advisory, Point Field Partners, Initiate Ventures, Open Field Capital, PTX Capital, and all existing investors including Cowen Healthcare Investments, Foresite Capital, Menlo Ventures, OrbiMed, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Northpond Ventures, Samsara BioCapital, Rock Springs Capital, AV8 Ventures, Illumina Ventures, Osage University Partners, and Windham Venture Partners. In conjunction with the funding, DFJ Growth Partner Justin Kao, joined Delfi’s board of directors.
The company intends to use the funds for the continued development and commercialization of high-quality and accessible blood tests for single cancer early detection, multi-cancer early detection, and treatment monitoring.
Led by Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, CEO and Founder, Delfi has built a platform designed to efficiently develop high-quality liquid biopsy applications via a proprietary and scalable whole genome fragmentation approach. Delfi analyzes cell-free DNA fragments across the entire genome. This allows for a single, low-cost, and straightforward lab process for any test developed on the platform. When combined with breakthroughs in machine learning, the platform can deliver high-performing results for multiple applications.
The company is currently validating the technology for early detection of lung and other cancers in a 15,000-person prospective trial called CASCADE-LUNG, and is working with multiple research institutions to develop additional applications including screening for other cancer types, multi-cancer early detection, and treatment monitoring.
