June 29 Quick Takes: $276M series C to enable Element to scale up sequencing tools; plus Yescarta, tislelizumab, Lynparza, Roche-4D, Actemra and more 

Sequencing company Element Biosciences raised a $276 million in a series C round to advance its mission of providing lower cost, accessible DNA sequencing tools for research applications. The company is developing flexible and easy-to-use bench top DNA sequencers, and plans to scale the commercial organization with the new funding as launch preparation. Janus Henderson Investors, Logos Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Counterpoint Global and T. Rowe Price joined existing investors in the round, which brings its total funding to $400 million to date.

Meeting the primary and key secondary endpoints in second-line relapsed or refractory large B cell lymphoma, Yescarta axicabtagene ciloleucel takes another step toward earlier lines of treatment. In the Phase III ZUMA-7 study, the CAR T cell therapy met the primary endpoint by improving event-free survival 60% over stem cell transplant plus chemotherapy with a median two years of follow up. Yescarta, which is approved as third-line therapy, led to a first-line ORR benefit in an interim analysis of the Phase II ZUMA-12 study last year in patients with high-risk diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL)...