April 27 Finance Quick Takes: Therini raises $36M A for fibrin-targeted therapies
Plus: Zura raises $80M, adds bifunctional asset in Lilly deal and updates from Foresite Diagnostics, Adcentrx, Pattern, Antiva and Mezzion
Therini Bio Inc. closed a $36 million series A round to develop a pipeline of therapies targeting the inflammatory component of fibrin, including lead mAb THN391, bringing the company’s total funds raised since its 2016 founding to $62 million. The financing was co-led by Dementia Discovery Fund, MRL Ventures Fund, Sanofi Ventures and SV Health Investors’ Impact Medicine Fund, with participation from new investor Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY), and all existing investors including Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), Dolby Family Ventures, and Foundation for a Better World. The company has preclinical data showing THN391 binds the inflammation-driving component of fibrin that plays a role in neurodegenerative and retinal diseases, but does not interfere with fibrin's role in blood clotting and coagulation. Early clinical data for THN391 are expected by YE24.
Weeks after closing a merger agreement with a special purpose acquisition company that made Zura Bio Ltd. (NASDAQ:ZURA) a publicly listed company, the biotech has raised $80 million in a private placement and in-licensed tetravalent bispecific antibody tibulizumab (ZL-106) from Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY). Zura hopes to start a Phase II study next year of the candidate, which targets IL-17 and BAFF/BLyS, to treat systemic sclerosis; another trial in hidradenitis suppurativa would follow. Deep Track Capital, Great Point Partners and Suvretta Capital were among the investors...