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March 15 Quick Takes: Canada’s CPP leads insitro’s $400M series C; plus Bicara, Aveo, Gilead-Merck and more

March 16, 2021 1:39 AM UTC

Insitro Inc. said existing investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board led its new $400 million series C round, which builds on a $143 million series B closed in May 2020. Also backing the machine learning-guided drug discovery company were Temasek, Softbank Investment Advisors, Andreessen Horowitz, affiliates of T. Rowe Price, Casdin Capital, affiliates of BlackRock, Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, GV, Third Rock Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, HOF Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.

Biocon-backed Bicara launches with $40M, clinical program
Cambridge, Mass.-based Bicara Therapeutics Inc. has raised $40 million in seed funding from Biocon Ltd. (NSE:BIOCON; BSE:532523), which it intends to put toward clinical development of its first-in-class antibody program BCA101. The EGFR/TGFβ-trap bifunctional antibody is in a Phase I/II trial to treat EGFR-driven solid tumors that no longer respond to standard-of-care treatments. Its CEO, Claire Mazumdar, has prior experience at Rheos Medicines Inc. and Third Rock Ventures...