July 7 Quick Takes: Kernal raises $25M series A; AbbVie returns rights to Alector’s AL003
Plus California to manufacture insulin and updates from Portage, Legend and more
With a $25 million series A round, Kernal Biologics Inc. will extend its mRNA platform and ready an IND submission for immuno-oncology candidate KR-335. The financing was led by Hummingbird Ventures, with participation from Amgen Ventures, HBM Genomics and Civilization Ventures. Hummingbird Managing Partner Firat Ileri will join the company’s board. Kernal was co-founded by CEO Yusuf Erkul in 2016.
Alector Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) has regained rights to AL003 from AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) after the pharma terminated a 2017 deal for the CD33-targeting antibody. Alector had said it was reviewing next steps for the program with AbbVie after data from a Phase I study presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) meeting in November showed its target engagement in blood and CNS components at well-tolerated doses. The partners’ deal remains intact for AL002, which targets TREM2...