Jan. 25 Quick Takes: Casdin Capital, GV lead $140M series B for Leyden

Leyden Laboratories B.V.’s $140 million series B round will further the company’s push to develop intranasal products that protect against infection by viral families that share common traits. Series A investors Casdin Capital and GV led the fund-raising, which saw participation from new investors SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Invus and Bluebird Ventures, and A round backers F-Prime Capital and Byers Capital/Brook Byers. Eli Casdin of Casdin Capital joins the board, with Softbank’s Vali Barsan, Jeff Bird of Bluebird Ventures and Suzanne Jung Angell of Casdin Capital becoming board observers. The new funding brings Leyden’s total capital raised to about $200 million. Led by founding CEO Koenraad Wiedhaup, Leyden counts former Crucell executives Jaap Goudsmit, Ronald Brus and Dinko Valerio among its other founders.

Twist Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ:TWST) is partnering with immune cell therapy engineering company Artisan Development Labs Inc., known as Artisan Bio, to discover antibodies against five of Artisan's undisclosed targets, with an option to expand with additional targets. Twist will receive upfront technology access and project fees for each program, and is eligible for clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus royalties. Twist has been growing its footprint in antibody discovery over the last three years, most recently via the November acquisition of Abveris Inc. Artisan Bio, which has sites in Copenhagen, Denver, and Toronto, and funding from XSeed Capital, Northpond Ventures and Takeda Ventures...