BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

May 28 Quick Takes: Illumina leads $70M Ginkgo round; plus Arena, Viela Bio, BioCryst, Progenity and Microbion

May 29, 2020 1:41 AM UTC

Ginkgo financing to support COVID-19 testing
New investor Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) led a $70 million round on Thursday for genetic engineering company Ginkgo Bioworks Inc.; existing investors General Atlantic and Viking Global Investors also participated. Gingko aims to scale up its next-generation sequencing capacity to support COVID-19 testing and monitoring.

Arena raises $275M follow-on
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) raised a $275 million follow-on Thursday, selling 5.5 million shares at $50, a 14% discount to Wednesday’s close of $58.14. Lead candidate etrasimod, an S1P receptor modulator, is in the clinic for several autoimmune indications...