Valneva has yet to successfully usher its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine across the regulatory finish line, but analysts still see reason to bet on the French vaccine specialist.

The Houston-based preclinical biotech has raised a $15.5 million series A round led by Sporos Bioventures. The funding will go toward bringing Stellanova’s lead antibody into the clinic, building out a discovery platform and growing the team, including leadership hires later this year.

The FDA this week approved Scynexis’ ibrexafungerp tablets, now christened Brexafemme, to treat vaginal yeast infections. The green light marks the first approval in a new class of antifungal drugs in more than 20 years and propels Scynexis into the commercial realm with a potential blockbuster in tow.

But this orphan disease is one of the main reasons the team at Calliditas Therapeutics goes to work every day.

At Fountain, specifically, recent advances in AI have enabled us to spearhead a new unbiased approach to drug discovery and development.  We are using this platform to discover, refine, and advance a pipeline of disease-modifying therapies for age-related diseases, addressing both novel compounds and targets.

“However, the mere presence of antibodies to a virus does not necessarily mean an individual has protective immunity to reinfection,” Ian Chan, CEO of Boston-based biotech developer Abpro, told Healthline.

When Boehringer Ingelheim and OSE Immunotherapeutics teamed up in 2018 to develop OSE’s first-in-class checkpoint inhibitor, it was clear BI had high hopes for the immuno-oncology asset: The closely held German company paid about $18 million upfront but then piled on royalties and milestones, making the deal worth $1.4 billion to OSE.