July 15 Financial Quick Takes: RA raises $300M for new fund; plus Alphamab and Castle

RA launches $300M VC fund
RA Capital raised $300 million for its first close-ended venture fund, dubbed Nexus, which will invest in private companies backed by the firm's main fund, RA Capital Healthcare Fund L.P. The fund will invest in companies at every stage and across therapeutic areas such as neurology, rare disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Alphamab Oncology lines up for Hong Kong IPO
Alphamab Oncology (Cayman) proposed to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange in an IPO underwritten by Morgan Stanley, CLSA and Jefferies. The company spun out of Suzhou Alphamab Co. Ltd. (Suzhou, China) in 2018 and has eight oncology drug candidates in development, including four in clinical testing. The financing will support clinical development of KN046, a bispecific antibody targeting CTLA-4 and PD-L1 in Phase Ib/II for various solid tumors, the anti-HER2 antibody KN026 in Phase II testing for gastric cancer and the Nulojix belatacept biosimilar KN019, which the company plans to take into a Phase II trial in August for rheumatoid arthritis.

Castle sets range for NASDAQ IPO
Dermatological cancer profiling company Castle Biosciences Inc. (Friendswood, Texas) set terms for its proposed IPO and is seeking to sell 3.3 million shares at $14-$16. At the midpoint, Castle would raise $50 million and be valued at $232 million. Pre-IPO investors with more than a 5% stake are Sofinnova HealthQuest Partners, MGC Venture Partners, Industry Ventures Healthcare and BioBrit...