Orbus Therapeutics
Just expanded their Series A funding round to $71M. Initial Series A was...August 2015? Ah, the time-honored tradition of the five-year funding round. The nomenclatural hoops companies will jump through to avoid a down round.
CRISPR Therapeutics
They announced results of their 11 person phase 1 clinical trial for cancer. Some participants on higher doses achieved remission and only one of them died. They referred to these results as positive. Hmm. 'Only 9% died. Great success!' comes off a little harsh. Depending on the aggressiveness/stage of cancer, that may actually not be too bad, but startling to see in a tiny phase 1 safety trial.
98point6
Ugly name - what is this a thermometer company? No, it's a text-message platform for sick people to get a quick digital diagnosis. They somehow just got $118M in a Series E round. For a text message platform. Welcome to 2004.
They seem to be basing their business model on signing up private companies to offer this platform directly to their employees. Pretty sure people tend to go to their doctor or an urgent care or CVS or Quora for a diagnosis, not their employer's HR department.
Amazingly this text message platform needs 240 employees to operate and has already consumed $129M in prior funding. (And that's without any big malpractice suits.) But hey, gotta spend money to goose those user numbers to get the next round of investors to bite. Tech investing 101 right there.
98point6...that's known as a sandwich name around here (letters surrounding numbers or vice versa). How about we dive into some more delicious sandwiches:
IN8bio
IN8Bio filed for an $86M IPO after rebranding their company in August (formerly Incysus). They've partially completed a 38-person phase 1 safety trial and even that has taken them two years. Sounds like a great place to put some money you will never need again.
4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals
4T4 woulda been better. This is a German company working on a monoclonal antibody targeting DPP3. On their website they have some clips of shock-induced cardiovascular failure in rats. (Echocardiograms, not videos of convulsing rats, you sicko)
Other Notable Sandwiches
-P1vital: Looks like it should be P1votal, but really no idea how they even pronounce it.
-Kv1.3 Therapeutics: This company shut down a couple years back, but it's our all-time favorite sandwich name. Only a heart Emoji could have improved this monstrosity.
