Recent Funding:
Ray Therapeutics (SF) Raises $125 Million to Advance Gene Therapy for Vision Loss
Ray Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed Series B round led by Janus Henderson Investors to fund its lead gene therapy RTx-015, which aims to restore vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa — a genetic disease that progressively destroys the cells in the eye responsible for sight. The FDA has granted RTx-015 a special “RMAT” designation, which is reserved for promising therapies targeting serious unmet medical needs and gives Ray a faster, more supported path toward potential approval.
M&A, Deals, Partnerships:
Soleno, maker of the first-ever FDA-approved drug for Prader-Willi syndrome (a rare condition causing uncontrollable hunger), was forced to sell itself to San Diego-based Neurocrine at a steep discount after multiple potential buyers walked away due to poor approval prospects in Europe. The final $53/share deal was about 38% lower than an earlier $86/share offer Soleno had received, highlighting how a single drug’s limited global reach can dramatically impact a biotech’s value — Neurocrine has already confirmed it won’t pursue European approval.
Other Interesting News:
Arcus Biosciences (SF) Suffers Major Setback as Key Cancer Drug Fails Phase 3 Trial
Domvanalimab, Arcus’s flagship cancer immunotherapy developed with Gilead, was stopped early in a large lung cancer trial after the data showed it was unlikely to beat Merck’s blockbuster drug Keytruda — marking the effective end of the once-hyped TIGIT drug class that pharma companies bet billions on. Following the failure, Gilead has pulled back significantly from its broader partnership with Arcus, dropping options on several early-stage programs, though it’s holding onto rights for a handful of other experimental drugs still in development.
Kyverna’s one-time cell therapy miv-cel hit every single endpoint in its clinical trial for stiff person syndrome — a debilitating condition affecting roughly 6,000 Americans — with 67% of patients who needed a walking aid at the start of the trial no longer needing one after just 16 weeks, and all patients able to stop their existing medications. The company is now preparing to file for full FDA approval, and early results in a second disease, myasthenia gravis (a muscle-weakening autoimmune condition), showed a 100% response rate — signaling miv-cel could eventually treat a broad range of autoimmune diseases with a single treatment.
Rigel Pharmaceuticals (SF) Loses Eli Lilly Partnership Worth Up to $960 Million
Eli Lilly has fully terminated its partnership with Rigel on a class of drugs targeting a protein called RIPK1 — an area that was once considered promising for treating inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis but has now been abandoned by nearly every major pharma company. Rigel’s experimental drug ocadusertib failed to clear Lilly’s internal bar after a mid-stage clinical trial, leaving Rigel with no active partner on the program and no near-term path forward for the asset.
Tempero Bio (SF) Shuts Down After Serious Adverse Event in Alcohol Use Disorder Trial
Tempero Bio, which raised $70M in early 2025 to develop brain-targeting treatments for addiction, has shut down after a serious safety event occurred in its Phase 2 clinical trial for alcohol use disorder, forcing the company to fully terminate its lead drug program. The company’s drug, TMP-301, was designed to target brain receptors linked to addiction — with hopes of becoming a transformative treatment for substance use disorders similar to what GLP-1s have done for obesity, but the safety setback ended those ambitions.
