March 1 Quick Takes: Chroma raises $135M in series B led by GV

Chroma Medicine Inc. raised $135 million in a series B round, marking the largest venture round to date for an epigenetic editing company and a vote of confidence in the emerging technology. GV led the round, which was announced about one year after the company launched with a $125 million series A. New investors Arch Venture Partners, DCVC Bio, Mubadala Capital, Sixth Street and all existing investors participated in the B round. Chroma has not announced any lead candidates or indications, but the company has been advancing the technology, which involves using gene editing machinery to silence or activate gene expression without altering the genetic sequence. Chroma is one of at least four companies launched in recent years to modify the epigenome.

Under a new pact, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) and ImmunoGen Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGN) will use the latter biotech’s antibody-drug conjugate technology to create conditioning agents for use with gene-edited therapeutics against multiple targets. The partners said they will seek to create an ADC-based agent to pair with Vertex’s ex vivo hematology gene therapy exagamglogene autotemcel. ImmunoGen will receive $15 million up front, and is eligible for $337 million in option fees and milestones, plus royalties...