Shara Ticku

Superluminal Medicines, a Boston, MA-based company that uses generative biology, chemistry and machine learning approaches to create medicines, raised $120M in Series A funding. The round was led by RA Capital Management with participation from existing investors Insight Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), and Gaingels. New investors Catalio Capital Management, Eli Lilly and Company, and Cooley LLP joined in the financing, and Diamantis Xylas, MD of Catalio joined the Board of Directors. https://lnkd.in/eDTTgE9f The company intends to use the funds to support the progression of its lead program into clinical development and increase the number of small molecule drug discovery programs focused on high-value G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets. Led by CEO Cony D’Cruz, Superluminal Medicines is a generative biology and chemistry company developing a differentiated pipeline and revolutionizing the speed and accuracy of how medicine is created. Its platform creates candidate-ready compounds with unprecedented speed using a comprehensive combination of deep biology and chemistry expertise, machine learning, and proprietary big data infrastructure. The predict-design-test architecture accurately models protein shapes and designs highly selective compounds to target the precise structural change for therapeutic effect. Its discovery engine is powered by a pharmacokinetic and toxicology in silico prediction capability. The company’s proprietary pipeline validates its platform with initial programs focused on high-value GPCR targets.

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Biopharma's "mud-and-stick" season rolls on... From last week but worth noting Symbiotic Capital's new debt fund. This new vehicle from Arie Belldegrun's Bellco Capital is meant to provide debt to later-stage pharma. While these announcements never come on day 1 of a fund, what was truly astounding was that its already 40-50% deployed (!!!). https://lnkd.in/g7ehYBNR There's a lot of pain out there across the industry for a debt facility to be deployed that fast. You're seeing companies across the board hunker down, cut every program but their lead, and just focus on that, waiting (often times) for clinical readouts. Single assets are the new "platform". Which is why biopharma is in "mud and stick" season (my northeast friends will know what this is). Its not winter, but its definitely not spring. What are you seeing? Let me know! #pharma #investing #biotech

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Ever stumble into something and think “holy ****, how does everyone not realize this is here?” That’s what gateway.racap.com is for biotech executives/directors and everyone who wants to be one. It’s still an emerging gem where my colleagues and I have been storing pearls in the form of interviews and articles and slide decks that explain countless things about biotech. You can even assess the strength of your board across 20+ dimensions & discover people who could fill gaps. Learn how to run efficient board meetings (shave 4 hours down to 1-2; hint: elephant slide, core value prop, and agenda), how low fees could be on financing instruments, real differences between crossover and other rounds, how to teach value of equity to employees, how to extract from your existing investors what they really want to invest in an IPO and at what price, how to handle M&A negotiations, the utility of low-ego polymaths, how to avoid overstaffing, and so much more. When we learn new things, Gateway is where we share what we learn. And if you have something you want to teach, just let me know. Gateway features the wisdom of many people from across our ecosystem. I wrote “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to a Biotech Startup” 20 years ago. Gateway is the ever evolving sequel. Hope you discover it (if you haven’t already) and pass it onto to others. Because we all make fewer mistakes when we learn from others. And with society demanding that we do more with less, there’s really no excuse for repeating mistakes, right? Peter #biotech RA Capital Management

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Our partner Eddie Eltoukhy has identified these opportunities in Biotech. Eddie has a PhD in bioengineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and over a decade experience as an operator. Reach out to him if you are working on these areas of biotech. Pear VC - Technology-Driven Therapeutic Platforms Companies developing therapeutic assets with a core product engine Proprietary tool, workflow, or samples leading to novel biological data sets Preference for omics platforms or high throughput screening / engineering workflows First-in-class or best-in-class drugs - Next-Generation Therapeutic Modalities Technologies to improve the efficacy, safety, access, or reach of next-gen modalities including the following: Genomic medicines (gene tx & gene editing) Cell therapies Targeted protein degraders Antibody-drug conjugates Radiopharma - Precision Medicine New technologies supporting the discovery of novel biomarkers and the generation of proprietary data sets for applications in: Disease screening Therapy selection Recurrence monitoring - Life Sciences + AI Software Platforms Software & AI-driven platforms to improve all aspects of life sciences R&D, including: Target discovery and validation Drug design and optimization Manufacturing Regulatory Clinical development

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Today LIVE in 1 hour: Lead investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health team in Arda Therapeutics joins us today for Family Office Insights Mercury Series Webinar featuring Adam Freund of Arda Therapeutics. Today: June 10 2024, 02:15 PM Eastern Time : RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gNyhUPuh Cells are the functional units of life. They are also the functional units of disease: many chronic diseases are caused by certain cell populations becoming too abundant or active. For example, subsets of stromal cells drives fibrosis, while the hyperactivity of particular immune cells leads to chronic inflammation. Arda Therapeutics is developing medicines to precisely remove these pathogenic cells, thereby treating diseases more effectively than by blocking individual proteins or signaling pathways. Their proprietary, single-cell-based discovery engine identifies pathogenic cells and specific markers to target them. They then design therapies to eliminate these - and only these - cells.

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Allarity Therapeutics’ Stenoparib Shows Clear Clinical Benefit and Achieves Significant Milestone with Early Conclusion of Phase 2 Trial in Advanced Ovarian Cancer Boston (May 2, 2024)—Allarity Therapeutics, Inc. (“Allarity” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: ALLR), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing personalized cancer treatments, today announced the early discontinuation of its Phase 2 clinical trial of stenoparib, a novel PARP inhibitor, for the treatment of advanced recurrent ovarian cancer. The patients enrolled in the trial had been pre-screened by Allarity’s unique Drug Response predictor (DRP®) companion diagnostic (CDx) in order to treat only patients with the highest likelihood of deriving clinical benefit. The trial, evaluating stenoparib given twice daily, has shown clear clinical benefit, including tumor shrinkage and long-term disease stability, in heavily pre-treated ovarian cancer patients who otherwise have limited life expectancy. These results have provided sufficient clinical proof of concept for stenoparib as monotherapy, prompting Allarity to halt further enrollment in this trial to enable and accelerate the development of a follow-on trial with FDA regulatory intent. "Based on the substantial clinical benefit observed in the early stages of the trial, we have achieved proof of concept results that surpassed our initial expectations and provided the critical insights we were seeking," stated Thomas Jensen, CEO of Allarity Therapeutics. "Concluding the trial now is the most effective way to re-allocate our financial resources to develop a follow-on trial with the fastest route to regulatory submission for stenoparib. The patients enrolled in this trial are heavily pretreated, having undergone multiple prior treatments, often including PARP inhibitors. It is highly noteworthy that stenoparib, used in patients selected with the DRP® CDx, has delivered sustained clinical benefit for such very heavily pre-treated patients in the trial.”

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As private markets welcome more investors to the space, the how becomes as important as the why. iCapital Chairman & CEO Lawrence Calcano came on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to break down the how and the why. How can investors gain access to private markets in ways that work for them? How can alternative asset managers better serve those investors? How can this all be done in a responsible, thoughtful way that sets up both investors and private markets for success in the long-term? What is the evolution of the different service models that enable GPs to unlock access to private markets for more LPs? Lawrence Calcano and I discussed these topics and more on the show. Thanks Lawrence for coming on the show to share your thoughtful perspectives on the industry and its continued evolution. Thanks to Ultimus Fund Solutions for sponsoring this episode of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. https://lnkd.in/eX7njq8b

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ZyVersa Therapeutics Announces Publication Reinforcing the Rationale for Inhibiting ASC with IC 100 to Potentially Attenuate Cardiac Comorbidities in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease This publication, authored by leading experts in inflammasome-mediated inflammation and neurology at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, demonstrates that multiple inflammasome triggers (NLRP1 and pyrin) govern the inflammatory response in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and that release of inflammasome laden extracellular vesicles (EV) into the blood induce significant inflammation in cardiovascular cells. ZyVersa is developing Inflammasome ASC Inhibitor IC 100 to inhibit multiple types of inflammasomes, including NLRP1 and pyrin, and their associated ASC specks that trigger damaging inflammation and its spread to surrounding tissues. AD, a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting 6.7 million people in the US, is associated with many comorbidities, especially heart disease and stroke, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. WESTON, Fla., April 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZyVersa Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZVSA, or “ZyVersa”)https://lnkd.in/eMNA6t7a

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Indaptus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: INDP) continues to get a lot of interest in and questions about their “#PulsePrime” approach. Indaptus CEO, #JeffreyMeckler, took a moment to explain. In short, it’s their unique strategy using #Decoy20 to briefly but powerfully activate the #immunesystem. By stimulating immune cells to produce key #cytokines and #chemokines, they 'prime' the body to combat tumors effectively. Learn more now! https://lnkd.in/gx6eVggX #revolutionize #IndaptusTherapeutics #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #PulsePrime

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Should private markets look more like public markets? In this Citywire interview with the supremely knowledgeable Selin Bucak, we discuss the different angles of the private markets wealth push. Where should private markets and public markets intersect? I think it should intersect more in the execution and infrastructure than it should in trying to fit a "square peg in a round hole." "I'd almost want this space to think about looking more like public markets in the execution, where there's the ability to press a 'buy button' and then alternatives are a piece of a portfolio than have it look more like public markets from a product perspective where you're trying to combine private-public products, which I also think will happen." Listen to the entire interview on Citywire, link below. Alt Goes Mainstream https://lnkd.in/exKH3y3V

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Marc-Henry PITTY, MD, CEO of Oregon Therapeutics, "To date, our first-in-class #metabolicinhibitor, XCE853, has exhibited robust preclinical efficacy in both in vitro and in vivo models across multiple #cancer types. Lantern’s (NASDAQ: LTRN) #RADR®AI platform will leverage the in vitro and in vivo data to potentially advance XCE853 development in a highly targeted manner and will help inform disease indications and #biomarker signatures that can aid in the design of future #clinicaltrials and in the pursuit of combination therapies with other approved cancer drugs. Our team is looking forward to efficiently selecting among the landscape of ideal development options and efficiently de-risking future clinical development decisions." https://lnkd.in/g8XPQSsa #biotech #france #texas #oncology #artificialIntelligence

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Indaptus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: INDP) CEO, #JeffreyMeckler, and CMO, #RogerWaltzman, sat down to discuss a few key takeaways from their recent presentation at #ASCO2024. In this video, they cover: • Decoy20 Strategy: Discover how their novel approach stimulates both the innate and adaptive immune systems, with a remarkable tolerability profile thanks to a significant reduction in LPS. • Conference Highlights: Learn about the promising developments in CAR therapies for solid tumors and how Decoy20 could potentially enhance these treatments. • Reinforcement of Their Approach: Hear about other studies, like Eikon Therapeutics’ EIK1001 + Pembro, that support our broad immune activation strategy. #immunotherapy #checkpointinhibitors #biotech #cancerresearch #lifesciences #merck #keytruda

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the KdT podcast is back to unpack the first biotech IPO of 2024 - CG Oncology. in The World in a Grain of Sand, we break down an S1 from a recent biotech IPO and share insights on the science, business models, and financials. in this episode, Cain McClary, MD and Phil Grayeski discuss CG Oncology, and dive into: - the various subtypes of bladder cancer, and one of the most unique standard of care treatment paradigms in oncology, which utilizes a live attenuated virus to treat the disease - supply chain and manufacturing issues that have limited access to SoC therapy in bladder cancer - CG Oncology’s lead (and only) asset, an oncolytic immunotherapy which has delivered impressive complete response data in bladder cancer - challenges and open questions around complex manufacturing, clinical and commercial adoption, and competition for CG’s product - bull vs bear case for the company link to the full episode in the comments.

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