Feb. 5 Financial Quick Takes: Aimmune gets $200M Nestlé investment; plus Vineti, MaaT, Kezar, Ziopharm, Ikarovec

$200M for Aimmune as it expands allergy pipeline
Nestlé Health Science made a $200 million equity investment in Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:AIMT), giving it a 19.9% stake in the allergy company based on its outstanding common shares. Also on Wednesday, Aimmune licensed exclusive, worldwide rights to a mAb against IgE from Xencor Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR) and will make an upfront payment of $5 million in cash and $5 million in equity in the company. Xencor is eligible for up to $385 million in milestones, plus high single-digit to mid-teen royalties. Aimmune plans to develop AIMab7195 as an adjunctive treatment with its food allergy therapies, including newly approved peanut allergy therapy Palforzia; Xencor completed two Phase I trials of the mAb to treat allergy and atopic disease (see “FDA Continues its Run of Indication-first Approvals with Aimmune’s Peanut Allergy Therapy”).

Vineti raises $35M for healthcare software
Health software company Vineti Inc. raised $35 million in a series C led by Cardinal Health. Also participating were Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) and the Kite Pharma Inc. unit of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), as well as existing investors Canaan Partners, Threshold Ventures, Section 32, LifeForce Capital, Casdin Capital, Hive Ventures and other, undisclosed investors. To enable the scale-up and distribution of cell therapies, Vineti’s cloud-based platform connects healthcare providers, suppliers and biopharmas in a digital network with real-time access to data...