Breakthrough in neurodegeneration: GV, Bill Gates and Foresight invest $45m in Cerevance
GV, Bill Gates and Foresight Capital joined three existing investors in Cerevance’s recent Series B round, which closed with $45m raised. The ability of this brain disease-focused drug discovery company to close a lucrative round with such high-profile investors amid the Covid-19 pandemic is impressive, but how will the new financing impact the Cerevance’s future?
“Who Are They?” A Biotech CEO’s Timeless Question For CDMOs
The question James E. Brown, President & CEO, DURECT asked of CDMOs when he founded the company in 1998 remains perfectly operational. “‘Who are they?’ is the most important question for me regarding our external partners,” he tells me from his corporate headquarters in Cupertino, CA.
San Diego biotech company launches trials of drug to treat COVID-19 pneumonia
San Diego biotech company CalciMedica has partnered with two Midwestern hospitals to test a drug designed to help COVID-19 patients who are battling severe pneumonia.
Cerevance Banks $45 Million for Neurological Drug Development
Biotechnology startup Cerevance Inc. has secured $45 million to hunt for treatments for neurological diseases by studying samples of brain tissue gathered from deceased donors world-wide.
Vaccines, Antibodies and Drug Libraries. The Possible COVID-19 Treatments Researchers Are Excited About
At GigaGen, a San Francisco-based biotech startup founded by Stanford University professor Dr. Everett Meyer, scientists are identifying the right antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients and hoping to use them as a template for synthesizing new ones, in a more consistent and efficient way so a handful of donors could potentially produce enough antibodies to treat millions of patients. “What GigaGen’s technology does is almost Xerox copy a big swath of the human repertoire of antibodies, and then takes those copies and grows it in cells [in the lab] to manufacture more antibodies outside of the human body,” says Meyer.
Gates, GV chip into $45M round for CNS biotech Cerevance
Four months after inking its first Big Pharma partnership, Cerevance is topping up its coffers with a $45 million raise. The proceeds will push the company’s lead Parkinson’s disease program through phase 2 and move several earlier-stage prospects into the clinic. The funding comes from GV, Bill Gates and Foresite Capital, which joined the Dementia Discovery Fund and Cerevance’s founding investors, Takeda Ventures and Lightstone Ventures, in the series B. The company decided to close the round in light of uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, but it could do a second close to reel in another $15 million, CEO Brad Margus told FierceBiotech.
Coronavirus Survivors Needed: New Orleans Doctor is collecting blood samples from survivors to make treatment.
Research is critical during this pandemic. With so much unknown about the coronavirus, doctors and scientists are exploring new methods to finding a treatment. A New Orleans doctor is collecting blood samples from local survivors of Covid-19. The blood samples will help make a new kind of treatment for the masses.
