Company Quick Takes: TandemAI seeded with $25M

TandemAI plans to use its $25 million seed and pre-series A financing, led by OrbiMed and Chengwei Capital, to advance its computational platform and expand wet lab operations. Co-founded by CEO Jeff He, who previously co-founded HiFiBiO and Harbour BioMed, the Suzhou and Shanghai-based company will identify drug candidates using a discovery platform that combines quantum mechanics, large-scale experimental data and AI.

A deal with AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) will add a portfolio of KCC2 transporter activators to the epilepsy franchise of Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:OVID). The pharma will receive $12.5 million up front, including $5 million cash and a $7.5 million equity stake in Ovid, in exchange for a set of preclinical molecules including lead candidate OV350 for epileptic disorders; the deal includes another $203 million in milestones, plus royalties. Ovid’s anti-convulsive franchise includes GABA aminotransferase inhibitor OV329, which is due in the clinic next year; as well as soticlestat, a CYP46A1 inhibitor in Phase III testing that is partnered with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4502; NYSE:TAK)...