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Licensing Puts Viracta in Good Position

Patrick Soon-Shiong
Ivor Royston

Local biotech Viracta Therapeutics has closed an $18.4 million round of financing and inked a licensing deal with the round’s lead investor, Na|ntKwest.

The deal gives NantKwest (led by biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong) an exclusive license to use Viracta’s drug candidate, called VRx-3996, in combination with its own therapies.

Viracta has been flying under the radar for the past two years in San Diego. Ivor Royston, a Forward Ventures partner and longtime biotech executive in San Diego, founded Viracta with technology salvaged from local drugmaker HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals.

Forward Ventures joined NantKwest in this latest Series B round for Viracta, along with Wicklow Capital and Latterell Venture Partners.

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With the new funds, the company will advance VRx-3996 through mid-stage trials.

Viracta’s drug is designed to treat lymphoid tumors connected to the cancer-causing Epstein Barr virus. Cancers associated with this virus include lymphomas, such as Hodgkin lymphoma and Burkitt’s lymphoma.

Interestingly, Viracta just recently got its hands on this drug. Back in November, the local company bought the scientific asset from United Kingdom-based Chroma Therapeutics. Viracta hoped it would work well in combination with the company’s existing viral activation therapy platform as an anti-cancer treatment.

NantKwest also sees combo potential. The biotech believes the drug might make immune-system-activators, such as NantKwest’s natural killer cell therapies, work better in certain patients.

As part of the financing deal, Soon-Shiong is joining Viracta’s board as vice chairman.

Regina Groves foresees revenue on the horizon after almost 19 years of work on heart stents.

REVA Medical’s ‘Disappearing’ Stents to Sell in Europe

REVA Medical, San Diego’s maker of “disappearing” heart stents, has received regulatory approval to sell its product in Europe.

The product, which the company calls ‘Fantom,’ is a high-tech stent made out of polymers instead of metal. The polymers are “bioresorbable,” meaning they basically disappear into the body.

Fantom received CE Mark approval just last week, meaning the product can be marketed in the European Union. The approval is huge for the San Diego company.

“It is the culmination of years of effort,” said CEO Reggie Groves.

REVA has been around since 1998, fiddling with stents of all varieties (including ones made of metal), but none have reached the market. Then in 2014, they started developing the tech that would later become Fantom.

After almost 19 years, REVA is still not generating any significant revenue. That should change very soon, as the company will start selling Fantom in Europe this quarter.

REVA has some competition in the European biodegradable stent market. Abbott Laboratories, Biotronik, and Elixir Medical are all competitors to REVA. Abbott in particular is a giant compared with REVA valued at around $76 billion.

But Groves says the competition only sets the stage for “better, second-generation” stents. They’re also helping to spread the word about bioresorbable stents, helping patients and doctors become familiar with the idea.

“As the patient population becomes increasingly acquainted with the appeal of bioresorbable scaffolds in general, versus metal stents, we believe they will come to ask for Fantom by name,” Grove said.

That’s based on the company’s clinical data, which Groves said is positive, and the idea that REVA’s stents are more user-friendly for doctors.

Cidara Therapeutics Inc. and CEO Jeffrey Stein have earned an award of up to .9 million from an international partnership in antibiotic and antimicrobial research.

Two Biotechs Targeting ‘Super Bugs’ Awarded $15.7M

Two local biotechs — Forge Therapeutics Inc. and Cidara Therapeutics Inc. — landed coveted research awards totaling $15.7 million to further develop their antimicrobial programs.

Forge is to receive up to $8.8 million, with an initial award of $4.8 million over 15 months, and an additional $4 million upon achievement of certain milestones. Cidara is to receive up to $6.9 million, with $3.9 million over 13 months and up to an additional $3 million after that based on milestones.

The money comes from a group called CARB-X, a U.K/U.S. public-private partnership set up last year to rejuvenate early-stage antibiotic and antimicrobial research. The group, which includes participation from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a total of $24 million to 11 biotechs in this first round of grants. Forge’s piece of the pie was the largest.

The grant winners, selected from 168 applications, are addressing some of the biggest threats in the antimicrobial resistance fight, with antibiotic programs all aimed at gram-negative bacteria that have been prioritized by the CDC and the World Health Organization.

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