Jan. 20 Quick Takes: Arch, Casdin lead $75M series B to grow ONI’s platform

ONI will build out its Asia and U.S. commercial and R&D teams after raising $75 million in a series B round led by Arch Venture and Casdin Capital. The San Diego and Oxford, U.K.-based company also plans to grow its stable of consumables and cloud-based software apps with the financing, which drew participation from fellow new investors Section 32, ARTIS Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Axon Ventures and private investors, including Paul Conley. Existing investor Oxford Science Enterprises re-upped, and Arch’s Keith Crandell and Casdin’s Shaun Rodriguez joined the company’s board. The Oxford University spinout markets the Nanoimager, a super-resolution, single-molecule desktop imaging platform that visualizes and tracks individual molecules in systems such as nanoparticles, living cells and tissue.

Generics manufacturers from more than 11 countries spanning Kenya and Egypt to China and South Korea have sublicensed rights to molnupiravir from The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to supply the COVID-19 antiviral from Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics L.P. in 105 low- and middle-income countries. Five of the companies will produce raw ingredients, 13 will produce both raw and finished drug, and nine will produce the finished drug.  Merck, Ridgeback and Emory University will not receive any royalties as long as COVID-19 remains classified as a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO. ...