Mountain of cash

Investors in Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. decided the company's A round had to get the preclinical immunotherapy company to human efficacy data. The syndicate therefore is pouring in $48 million, about double the average size for preclinical A rounds in the past 18 months.

"It was critical the capital we raised be sufficient to take us through first-in-human trials. The early stage round has to take series A investors through a value-creating event," said Mitchell Gold, executive chairman and acting CEO of Alpine Immune and a managing partner at Alpine BioVentures...