Nov. 18 Quick Takes: RA’s Avilar raises $60M seed for protein degradation tech

RA Capital’s Avilar Therapeutics Inc. now has $60 million in seed money to develop its protein degraders to target disease-causing extracellular proteins. The company’s ASGPR Targeting Chimeras (ATACs) tap a process through which endogenous proteins are internalized into hepatocytes via the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR) and then degraded. The company’s C-suite includes President and CEO Daniel Grau, CSO Effie Tozzo and CDO Phil Graham.

An equity investment by Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NASDAQ:SNY) in AI and precision medicine company Owkin Inc. will support the pharma’s oncology portfolio in areas such as lung cancer, breast cancer and multiple myeloma. Co-founded in 2016 by CSO Gilles Wainrib and CEO Thomas Clozel, Owkin will receive $90 million from Sanofi and may be eligible for additional milestone-based payments. The company applies its AI technology to patient data obtained through partnerships with academic medical centers, and will search for new biomarkers and therapeutic targets, build prognostic models, and predict treatment responses...