Corxel's raises $287m for obesity drug, and other financings

China's Corxel Pharmaceuticals' latest round is further evidence of biotech investors' insatiable appetite for companies with obesity programmes, with backers ploughing $287 million into its Series D.

The financing – which was backed by RTW Investments, SR One, TCG Crossover, RA Capital Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, and SymBiosis – will be used to fund ex-China development of the company's oral GLP-1 agonist CX11, licensed from fellow Chinese biotech Vincentage.

CX11 is described as a "differentiated" oral GLP-1 – which would compete with Novo Nordisk's recently approved Wegovy (semaglutide) pill and potentially Eli Lilly's orforglipron, currently under regulatory review. It has reached phase 3 in China and is in a phase 2 trial in the US run by Corxel, which is headquartered in Shanghai and has operations in New Jersey in the US. Corxel licensed rights to the drug outside Greater China last year for an undisclosed amount.

The cash injection will also allow Corxel to start phase 2 testing in type 2 diabetes and help to fund a phase 3 programme in obesity, with some also earmarked for two other programmes – an anti-clotting and anti-inflammatory candidate called JX10 for ischaemic stroke and JX09, an aldosterone synthase inhibitor for high blood pressure.

Other private rounds this week

Caldera Therapeutics has emerged onto the scene with a $112.5 million extended Series A that will be used to fund a bispecific antibody for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) sourced from China's Qyuns Therapeutics.

Massachusetts-based Caldera's chief executive, Praveen Tipirneni – who led Morphic Therapeutic before it was bought by Eli Lilly for $3.2 billion in 2024 – said the CLD-423 drug combines "two powerful autoimmune targets in a single molecule" and could become "the next frontier in IBD treatment."

The bispecific – which is directed against IL-23p19 and TL1A – has been taken into phase 1 testing by Caldera, which was quietly formed last year and raised initial funding of $75 million that has now been topped up by $37.5 million in an extension led by Omega Funds.

IL-23p19 inhibition is a well-established mechanism in IBD treatment, featuring in marketed drugs like Johnson & Johnson's Tremfya (guselkumab), AbbVie's Skyrizi (risankizumab), Eli Lilly's Omvoh (mirikizumab), and Sun Pharma's Ilumya (tildrakizumab). Meanwhile, TL1A is targeted by experimental therapies, including MSD's tulisokibart, Sanofi/Teva's duvakitug, and Roche's afimkibart.

The initial Series A round was backed by Atlas Venture, LAV, and venBio, with Wellington Management and Janus Henderson Investors joining Omega Funds in the extension.

Also this week, San Francisco-based Mendra arrived on the scene with an $82 million Series A and a plan to buy and develop drug programmes for rare diseases, assisted with an AI platform to make clinical development and market access more efficient. Led by former BioMarin executives Joshua Grass (chief executive) and Jeff Ajer (chief commercial officer), Mendra will use the proceeds to buy its first assets.

The financing was co-led by OrbiMed, 8VC, and 5AM Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital and Wing VC.

Staying in the rare disease arena, Think Bioscience made its debut with a $55 million first round and a small-molecule programme for Noonan syndrome, a genetic condition that causes a wide range of symptoms, including heart disease, hearing and vision loss, joint and muscle problems, and which has no treatment.

The Boulder, Colorado start-up has a drug discovery platform that applies synthetic biology and medical chemistry to challenging drug targets, focusing initially on small-molecule drugs that can bind to protein 'pockets' to modulate their function. The round was led by Regeneron Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, and Janus Henderson Investors, with new backers TA Springer, CE-Ventures, MBX Capital, and YK Bioventures taking part alongside returning investors AV8 Ventures, CU Innovations, and Buff Gold Ventures.

German biotech Exciva completed a second-round financing this week, adding €51 million ($59 million) to its cash reserves that it will use to fund a phase 2 trial of its lead neuropsychiatric candidate, deraphan (dextromethorphan with a novel drug that acts as a CYP2D6 inhibitor and serotonin 5-HT2A/2C receptor inverse agonist), for agitation in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Gimv and EQT Life Sciences co-led the round, backed by new investors Fountain Healthcare Partners, LifeArc Ventures, Carma Fund, and Modi Ventures, as well as existing supporters Andera Partners and LBBW.

Another new company, Rochester, Minnesota's Cytotheryx, raised $60 million in a Series A for its preclinical-stage pipeline of cell therapy candidates for liver diseases. The money will support moving various programmes towards clinical development, building manufacturing capacity, and other activities such as regulatory planning.

The round was led by Ouroboros Family Founders Fund I and was accompanied by debt financing from QRS Investments that will be used to expand production facilities.

Finally, Oxford, UK cancer vaccine specialist Infinitopes expanded its seed financing round to $35 million, with the latest tranche provided by Octopus Ventures, new participants Amplify Bio and Macmillan Cancer Support, plus existing investors Cancer Research Horizons and Manta Ray Ventures.

The extra money comes just a few weeks after Infinitopes started its first-in-human phase 1/2a clinical trial (VISTA) of ITOP1, an 'off-the-shelf' vaccine for patients with surgically resectable oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC). According to the biotech, VISTA is one of the first studies in the world to administer a cancer vaccine in the neoadjuvant setting.

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