Forge Biologics, Pleco Therapeutics, ArsenalBio
Irish unicorn LetsGetChecked secures €20m from Morgan Health
Morgan Health, a business unit of JPMorgan Chase, has invested €20m into Irish health testing start-up LetsGetChecked.
The investment was made as part of a Series D2 funding round led by Casdin Capital and Transformation Capital.
The fresh funding will support the continued expansion of the Irish unicorn as it serves Fortune 500 organisations, health plans, provider groups and the public sector.
The total funding amount from the round has not been disclosed. As part of the strategic investment, JPMorgan Chase executive VP and head of HR, Robin Leopold, will join LetsGetChecked’s board of directors.
Founded in 2015, LetsGetChecked builds and delivers at-home testing kits including hormone tests, fertility tests, HPV tests and wellness tests for cholesterol and diabetes.
Irish unicorn LetsGetChecked secures €20m from Morgan Health
The investment is part of a funding round to support the expansion of LetsGetChecked, which has more than 300 business clients worldwide.
Pleco Therapeutics injected with €17.3 million to boost cancer treatment
Dutch clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Pleco Therapeutics has raised €17.3 million in funding to develop a portfolio of cancer therapies. The Series A round was backed by Oost NL, Hyloris Pharmaceuticals and Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO).
The health tech startup aims to extend the life span and enhance patients’ quality of life through its Plecoid therapies designed to increase the effectiveness of current cancer treatments. The company claims its Plecoid therapies have the potential to positively change the balance of protein expression within the cancer microenvironment by removing the burden of toxic metals within the cell. This will help improve the effectiveness of existing chemotherapy.
The company recently announced its expansion in the U.S. with Pleco Therapeutics USA based in Newark, New Jersey.
Pleco Therapeutics injected with €17.3 million to boost cancer treatment - Tech.eu
The health tech startup aims to extend the life span and enhance patients’ quality of life through its Plecoid therapies designed to increase the effectiveness of current cancer treatments
ArsenalBio Raises $220M As Cell Therapy’s Popularity Grows
As innovations in cell therapy continue to grow, San Francisco-based ArsenalBio this week announced it raised a whopping $220 million in Series B funding, one of the largest rounds this year for a cell therapy venture.
The company’s Series B marks the second-largest funding among cell therapy startups in 2022, per Crunchbase data. ArsenalBio has raised $305 million since its start in 2019, according to Crunchbase.
Cell therapy transplants healthy, engineered human cells into a patient whose body is too weak to fight disease. As a result, cell therapy has become increasingly promising to scientists as a way to treat a wide variety of diseases.
ArsenalBio is looking to create an army of therapeutics to tackle a wide range of cancers. Its first drug candidate, targeted at ovarian cancer, is pursuing clearance by the Food and Drug Administration later this year, and upon receiving clearance will begin dosing patients.
The recent round was bolstered by a handful of investors such as legacy pharmaceutical company Bristol Meyers Squibb, along with biotech-focused Westlake Village BioPartners and SoftBank Vision Fund.
https://news.crunchbase.com/health-wellness-biotech/cell-therapy-startups-vc-arsenalbio/Forge Biologics Announces $90 Million Series C Financing to Expand Client Offerings and Add Services to Enhance End-to-End Gene Therapy Manufacturing Platforms
Forge Biologics, a gene therapy-focused contract development and manufacturing organization, today announced that it has raised $90 million in a Series C financing, bringing its total funding raised to date to $330 million.
The current round was co-led by Drive Capital and Aisling Capital with an additional undisclosed strategic investor.
The Company will use the funding to expand client offerings, including proprietary technologies, manufacturing systems, cell lines, and additional services to bolster its end-to-end manufacturing platform. Through the Company’s 200,000 square foot cGMP facility dedicated to AAV viral vector manufacturing, Forge will expand the number of offerings available to clients to help scale gene therapy programs from research to clinical and commercial manufacturing in its 20 cGMP suites utilizing its operational 50L, 500L, 1,000L and 5,000L bioreactors.
Forge Biologics is a hybrid gene therapy contract manufacturing and clinical-stage therapeutics development company. Forge’s mission is to enable access to life changing gene therapies and help bring them from idea to reality. Forge’s 200,000 square foot facility utilizes 20 cGMP suites in Columbus, Ohio, the Hearth, to serve as its headquarters. The Hearth is a custom-designed cGMP facility focused on AAV manufacturing and can host end-to-end manufacturing services to accelerate gene therapy programs from preclinical through clinical and commercial stage manufacturing. By taking a patients-first approach, Forge aims to accelerate the timelines of these transformative medicines for those who need them the most.
Forge Biologics Announces $90 Million Series C Financing to Expand Client Offerings and Add Services to Enhance End-to-End Gene Therapy Manufacturing Platforms | Business Wire
Forge Biologics, a gene therapy-focused contract development and manufacturing organization, today announced that it has raised $90 million in a Serie
Photys Therapeutics Raises $75M in Series A Funding
Photys Therapeutics, a Boston, MA-based developer of phosphorylation-inducing chimeric small molecule medicines (PHICS), raised $75M in Series A funding.
The round was led by MPM Capital with participation from Omega Funds, Longwood, 8VC, Arkin Bio, Mass General Brigham Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Heritage Medical Systems.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth and expand operations.
Founded by Longwood Fund and Dr. Amit Choudhary of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and led by CEO Brian Fenton and Chief Scientific Officer Edward Holson, PhD, Photys Therapeutics is advancing a proprietary new class of bifunctional medicines that direct and repair protein phosphorylation to treat a range of diseases including cancer, immune, metabolic, and rare diseases. Through induced proximity, Phosphorylation Inducing Chimeric Small Molecules (PHICS) enhance the pairing of specific kinases, the enzymes responsible for protein phosphorylation, with disease target proteins. PHICS can induce precise phosphorylation at native and/or non-native sites, modulating key functions including activation, stabilization, trafficking, localization, phospho-antigen presentation, inactivation, degradation and interactions of proteins.
Photys Therapeutics Raises $75M in Series A Funding
Photys Therapeutics, a Boston, MA-based developer of a phosphorylation-inducing chimeric small molecule medicines (PHICS), raised $75M in Series A funding
BioIVT Acquires XenoTech
BioIVT, a Westbury, NC-based provider of biospecimens, research models and services for drug and diagnostic development, acquired XenoTech, a Kansas City, KS-based provider of products for ADME-Tox in vitro models and contract research services, from Sekisui Chemical, based in Japan.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
With the acquisition, BioIIVT will continue its commitment to provide its biopharmaceutical customers with a comprehensive portfolio of research models and services to help them reach their R&D goals faster. XenoTech’s product lines, which include microsomes, complement BioIVT’s portfolio of hepatocytes and other hepatic products. XenoTech’s expertise also combines with BioIVT’s strengths in drug transporter research, B-CLEAR® disposition studies, long-term HEPATOPAC® models, and other proprietary methodologies and will increase BioIVT’s capabilities to support and accelerate customer research.
Led by CEO Dr. Darren Warren, XenoTech provides tools and resources to advance the development of effective, safe drugs, specializing in ADME, DMPK and DDI testing of potential drug candidates.
Led by CEO Dr. Richard Haigh, BioIVT is a provider of research models and value-added research services for drug discovery and development. The solutions enable scientists to understand the pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism of newly discovered compounds and their effects on disease processes.
