Aug. 21 Financial Quick Takes: Novalis' first investment fund; plus TFF proposes IPO and BARDA funds Merck's Ebola vaccine

Novalis closes first life sciences fund
Investment and advisory firm Novalis LifeSciences LLC (Hampton, N.H.) launched its first fund, Novalis LifeSciences Investments I, with $85 million to invest in 8-12 life sciences companies focused on areas including drug discovery, genomics, synthetic biology, diagnostics, life science tools and agricultural biotechnology.

TFF proposes IPO
TFF Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Austin, Texas) proposed to raise up to $25.3 million in an IPO underwritten by National Securities Corp. The company is using its Thin Film Freezing (TFF) platform to develop inhaled dry powder formulations of biologics and small molecules for pulmonary diseases...