CG Oncology has some new cash to play with.
The Irvine, CA-based biotech announced Thursday it closed a $47 million Series D round of preferred stock financing as the company continues to advance late-stage trials for its lead program, CG0070. With the money, CG expects to fund an ongoing Phase III study in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer as a monotherapy, as well as a combo Phase II trial with Merck’s Keytruda.
CG is also studying the candidate in combination with BMS’ Opdivo in a Phase Ib study for muscle invasive bladder cancer.
Thursday’s round was led by Kissei Pharmaceutical, a new investor. Existing investors ORI Healthcare Fund, Camford Capital and Perseverance Capital Management also participated.
“CG Oncology has made significant progress in advancing its late-stage oncolytic immunotherapy programs, and we have strong expertise to successfully develop and commercialize CG0070 in Japan, and other countries,” Kissei CEO Mutsuo Kanzawa said in a statement.
The biotech is also looking at how CG0070 can affect metastatic bladder cancer and solid tumors when combined with other checkpoint inhibitors, but those programs have yet to reach the clinical stage. — Max Gelman
Single-cell transcriptomic analysis tech inspires $24M Series A
Resolve Biosciences has raised $24 million to launch a new kind of single-cell spatial analysis technology.
According to new CEO Jason Gammack, the Molecular Cartography platform enables scientists to have “the highest-resolution view of subcellular gene expression activity.” They may look at hundreds of genes in a single run and detect the mRNA transcripts from all of them.
The plan is to focus the development of the technology first in oncology, neuroscience and infectious disease. Series A investors include PS Capital Management, MasterMind Advisory Services, Alafi Capital, John Shoffner and High-Tech Gründerfonds. — Amber Tong
Roche to work on automated insulin delivery with Diabeloop
Roche is joining forces with French tech company Diabeloop to work on automated insulin delivery.
The collaboration will pair Diabeloop’s closed-loop systems and artificial intelligence tech with Roche’s insulin pump portfolio. Together, they’ll work on “new opportunities to lower the burden of constant insulin dose adjustment for people with diabetes,” according to a statement by the companies.
“The technology of Diabeloop, based on a self-learning algorithm, is unique. We are convinced that the potential of the hybrid closed-loop systems will contribute to a more efficient and personalised approach of diabetes management,” Roche Diabetes Care global head Marcel Gmuender said in a statement. — Nicole DeFeudis
