On December 15, 2020 Singlera Genomics Inc. reported that it raised $150 million in Series B financing (Press release, Singlera Genomics, DEC 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234572893]). This round of financing was led by the CICC Kai Tak Innovative Biomedicine Fund, and co-led by Detong Capital and Furong Investment. The new group of investors also include Huamei International, Linden Asset Group, Wuxi Capital, FutureX Skyline Capital, Shanghai Free Trade Zone Fund, and initial investors from the Series A round such as Greenpine Capital, Prosperico Ventures, and Proxima Ventures joined with follow-on investment. Singlera will utilize this round of financing mainly to expand the company’s early cancer screening product research and development pipeline and focus on promoting product registration and commercialization, as well as expanding prospective studies into pan-cancer early screening.

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Singlera was established in 2014 with a commitment to develop the next generation of genetic testing and molecular diagnostic technologies. By focusing on the development and application of non-invasive early screening and diagnosis technology, the company developed a patented methylation detection platform for early tumor diagnostics and prevention. The series B round of financing demonstrates Singlera’s strong scientific technology research and development strength and broad commercial development prospects.

In July 2020, Singlera and Fudan University published groundbreaking scientific research results, which used Singlera’s circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) methylation multi-cancer screening technology PanSeer to validate early cancer detection in a large population cohort. After this round of financing, Singlera Genomics will continue to carry out large-scale pan-cancer early screening prospective studies.

Mr. Johny Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Singlera, said in a statement "we thank investors for their trust and support. I am honored that the innovative R&D, clinical transformation, and commercialization capabilities of Singlera have been recognized by top investors. This round of financing will help us further expand our product system and strengthen our strategic advantages and marketing capabilities in the field of early tumor screening and liquid biopsy. Cancer has been a major disease that impacts the entire world. Since its establishment 6 years ago, Singlera has been aiming to overcome early cancer screening and diagnosis. It has made a series of major breakthroughs in cancer early screening and early diagnostic technology. The next priority is to accelerate the commercialization of products so that these innovations can be applied to cancer prevention and treatment for hundreds of millions of people."

"Singlera has been committed to building an open and diversified ‘industry-university-research-medicine’ collaborative innovation ecosystem. In the past few years, we have cooperated with dozens of domestic and international scientific research institutes, hospitals and Pharmaceutical companies have carried out extensive cooperation, which has laid a huge advantage for us in basic research and application results transformation of early tumor screening and liquid biopsy," Professor Yuan Gao, co-founder and scientific advisor of Singlera, said in a statement. "We have developed early cancer screening and diagnostic technologies and products covering a variety of cancer types including lung, colorectal, liver, stomach, esophageal, pancreatic, and thyroid. This round of financing will help us carry out large-scale prospective studies and clinical trials".

On December 15, 2020 Clarity Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage radiopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious disease, reported that it has completed a capital raising of $25,000,410 (Press release, Clarity Pharmaceuticals, DEC 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234572891]).

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Dr Alan Taylor, Executive Chairman of Clarity Pharmaceuticals, commented, "It has been a pivotal year for Clarity with numerous critical milestones achieved in the development of our main products, advancement of our platform, as well as accelerated corporate and strategic activities despite facing an unprecedented global environment.

"The money raised will enable us to keep the momentum from 2020 going and provide financial resources to progress the following important initiatives:

– SARTATE

Progress the Cu-64/Cu-67 SARTATE Neuroblastoma trial at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in children with neuroblastoma;
Expand the Cu-64/Cu-67 SARTATE Neuroblastoma trial to additional clinical sites across the US with the ultimate goal of developing better treatment options for children with cancer; and
Commence patient recruitment in Phase II Cu-64 SARTATE Neuroendocrine trial.
– SAR-Bombesin

Progress and expand the Cu-64 BOmbesin in Breast CAncer Trial (C-BOBCAT) led by A/Prof Louise Emmett, Director of Theranostics and Nuclear Medicine, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney with an aim of developing better treatment options to women with metastatic breast cancer, an area currently with a high unmet need;
Expand the C-BOBCAT trial to include prostate cancer patients; and
Seek US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval for an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application.
– SAR-bisPSMA

Commence a clinical trial in the US for Cu-64/Cu-67 SAR-bisPSMA (theranostic) and in Australia for Cu-64 SAR-bisPSMA (diagnostic) to build on the promising pre-clinical data with the help of an internationally recognised team of key opinion leaders in the prostate cancer field; and
Seek US FDA approval for an IND Application.
– Develop new targeted theranostic products for a broad range of cancer types, utilising Clarity’s SAR Technology Platform and the Cu-64/Cu-67 pairing."

Dr Taylor continued, "Clarity has a strong focus on getting its lead product SARTATE to market, supported by the US FDA granting both Cu-67 SARTATE and Cu-64 SARTATE Orphan Drug Designations and Rare Paediatric Disease Designations for the treatment and clinical management of neuroblastoma, as well as developing the copper platform in large and unmet clinical indications."

"It has been a very exciting year for Clarity" Dr Taylor added. "We would like to sincerely thank our long-term shareholders for their continued support of Clarity, as well as welcome and thank a broad range of new shareholders including institutions, family offices, high net-worth individuals and others who wanted to be part of the Clarity story. We would also like to thank Blue Ocean Equities for their contribution in assisting us with the capital raise."

On December 15, 2020 Nevro Corp. (NYSE: NVRO), a global medical device company that is providing innovative, evidence-based solutions for the treatment of chronic pain, reported that D. Keith Grossman, Nevro’s Chairman, CEO and President, will present at the 39th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, January 12, 2021, at 4:30 pm Eastern Time / 1:30 pm Pacific Time (Press release, Nevro, DEC 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234572890]).

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A live webcast of this event, as well as an archived recording, will be available in the Investors section of Nevro’s website at www.nevro.com.

Internet Posting of Information

Nevro routinely posts information that may be important to investors in the "Investor Relations" section of its website at www.nevro.com. The company encourages investors and potential investors to consult the Nevro website regularly for important information about Nevro.

On December 15, 2020 Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PTGX), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, reported the closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of 5,476,189 shares of its common stock, including 714,285 shares sold pursuant to the underwriters’ exercise in full of their "green shoe" option to purchase additional shares, at a price to the public of $21.00 per share (Press release, Protagonist, DEC 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234572889]). Aggregate gross proceeds to Protagonist from the offering were approximately $115.0 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses.

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J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, SVB Leerink LLC, Piper Sandler & Co. and BMO Capital Markets Corp. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

A shelf registration statement relating to the offered shares of common stock was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 10, 2020. A final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering have been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website, located at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone at (866) 803-9204 or by email at [email protected]; from SVB Leerink LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, by telephone at (800) 808-7525, ext. 6132 or by email at [email protected]; from Piper Sandler & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 800 Nicollet Mall, J12S03, Minneapolis, MN 55402, by telephone at (800) 747-3924 or by email at [email protected]; or from BMO Capital Markets Corp., Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 3 Times Square, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10036, by telephone at (800) 414-3627 or by email at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

On December 15, 2020 Rafael Holdings, Inc., (NYSE: RFL), reported revenue of $1.1 million and a loss per share of $0.09 for the first quarter of its 2021 fiscal year, the three months ended October 31, 2020 (Press release, Rafael Holdings, DEC 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234572888]).

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Q1 FY 2021 Consolidated Financial Highlights

Revenue of $1.1 million in Q1 FY 2021, generated by Rafael Holdings’ real estate portfolio, decreased from $1.2 million in the year-ago quarter.
Loss per share of $0.09, a decrease from $0.10 in the year ago quarter largely due to a gains on the sale of the Company’s commercial real estate property in Piscataway, New Jersey and other investments which more than offset the increased research and development expense.
On December 7, 2020, the Company acquired the economic rights related to an additional 33.33% membership interest in Altira, a company which owns the rights to a receive a royalty on sales of certain Rafael Pharmaceuticals products. The acquisition added to the 33.33% interest purchased in fiscal 2020 As in the first such agreement, the Company purchased the potential right to receive a 1% royalty on Net Sales on these products.
On December 7, 2020, Rafael Holdings entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement for the sale of 567,437 shares of the Company’s Class B common stock at a price per share of $22.91 (the closing price of Class B common stock on the prior trading day) for an aggregate purchase price of $13 million. In connection with the purchases, each purchaser was granted warrants to purchase 20% of the shares of Class B common stock purchased by such purchaser exercisable at $22.91. A majority of the proceeds received are expected to be used by the Company to exercise an additional portion of the warrant held by the Company’s subsidiary to purchase equity securities of Rafael Pharmaceuticals. The remaining proceeds are expected to be used to fund the operations of Rafael Holdings’ drug development programs including its Barer Institute subsidiary and for general corporate purposes.
Rafael Pharmaceuticals
At October 31, 2020, the Company and its subsidiaries collectively owned securities representing 51% of the outstanding capital stock of Rafael Pharmaceuticals and approximately 37% on a fully diluted basis. Recent developments announced by Rafael Pharmaceuticals include:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for the Company’s lead compound, CPI-613 (devimistat), for the treatment of both metastatic pancreatic cancer and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Rafael Pharmaceuticals announced that it will initiate a Phase 2 clinical trial of CPI-613(devimistat) in combination with hydroxychloroquine in patients with clear cell sarcoma of soft tissue. The Company will begin enrolling patients in partnership with Sara’s Cure and Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC).
The FDA has granted Orphan Drug Designation for CPI-613 (devimistat) for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. Rafael Pharmaceuticals’ clinical trial will focus on the treatment of relapsed or refractory clear cell sarcoma.
Rafael Pharmaceuticals announced that it had crossed the enrollment of 100 patients in its Phase 3 clinical trial (Armada 2000) for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The multi-center, open-label, randomized pivotal trial is assessing the efficacy and safety of Rafael’s lead compound CPI-613 (devimistat) in combination with high dose cytarabine and mitoxantrone (CHAM) compared to high dose cytarabine and mitoxantrone (HAM) therapy in older patients.
LipoMedix
At October 31, 2020, Rafael Holdings held 68% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of LipoMedix, a development-stage Israeli company focused on the development of an innovative, safe and effective cancer therapy based on liposome delivery.

Barer Institute
The Barer Institute has identified and begun to develop new therapeutic compounds, including compounds to regulate cancer metabolism, through internal development and in-licensing. It is working to validate newly discovered biomarkers for resistance and sensitivity within its portfolio compounds and to identify certain novel targetable mechanisms of action.

Remarks by Howard Jonas, Chairman and CEO of Rafael Holdings
"Rafael Holdings’continued to pursue the strategic goal of creating value in the pharmaceutical field including through its investments in Rafael Pharmaceuticals and its wholly owned Barer Institute. In that regard, I am pleased that, among other milestones achieved, Rafael Pharmaceuticals’ lead compound, CPI-613 (devimistat), received U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Fast Track designation for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer and, as Rafael Pharmaceuticals announced earlier today, for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The Barer Institute continues to make meaningful progress on its drug development programs."