Private Company Edition: Arbor is developing drugs based on proprietary gene editors, Acrivon is applying proteomics to precision cancer therapies, and bit.bio is producing differentiated cell products. Also, Marengo launches with $80m, Sanofi invests up to $60m in Gyroscope and Shasqi raises $50m.

Renaissance Capital expects an initial public offering surge in September; Biomedtracker data show financings for COVID-19 programs fell from Q1 to Q2; Revelation will merge with a special purpose acquisition corporation; Ascendis netted $379.3m in a follow-on offering; and Disc Medicine raised $90m in venture capital.

The Flagship Pioneering-founded start-up will build a “Gigabase Factory” to go from idea to in vivo proof of concept within eight weeks by rapidly manufacturing and running preclinical tests for multiple constructs at once. 

Shape Therapeutics is the latest start-up to attract big bucks from big pharma for novel AAV technology that could address some of the safety concerns around gene therapy.