Sept. 14 Quick Takes: Out of stealth, Vanqua gets $85M series B
Plus: venture cash for Skyhawk, Rome, Treefrog, Alebund and more
Neurodegeneration company Vanqua Bio expects to bring a GBA activator program into the clinic with a new $85 million series B round, revealed Tuesday as the company officially launched. Led by co-founder and CEO Jim Sullivan, who is also a venture partner with series A investor OrbiMed Advisors, Vanqua hopes to advance its therapies initially to treat Gaucher disease and Parkinson’s disease associated with GBA mutations; it also hopes to develop small molecules and antisense oligonucleotides to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. The neuroscience sector has increasingly attracted venture investment in recent years, with new modalities and genetic insights driving interest.
Spliceosome company Skyhawk Therapeutics Inc. said Fidelity led a new $133 million investment round, further extending a cash runway that will allow it to advance a pipeline of small molecules that modulate RNA splicing. The Waltham, Mass.-based biotech now has received a total of more than $600 million from equity rounds and partnerships, including deals with Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK), Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY), Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY), Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX)...