San Fran­cis­co-based Aeov­ian Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals has banked $37 mil­lion in Se­ries A fi­nanc­ing to launch its mTORC1 in­hibitor in­to a proof-of-con­cept for what the com­pa­ny says is an undis­closed rare CNS dis­ease.

Linked to a num­ber of ag­ing and nu­tri­ent-sens­ing process­es, the mTOR path­way has typ­i­cal­ly been seen as a rich tar­get for phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies hop­ing to make in­roads in lifes­pan/healthspan ex­ten­sion. The se­cre­cy be­hind the ‘undis­closed dis­ease’ is not un­usu­al in a field where re­search is of­ten paint­ed with the broad brush of ‘age-re­lat­ed dis­eases.’ Part of Aeov­ian’s IP comes from the Buck In­sti­tute in No­va­to, Cal­i­for­nia, an in­de­pen­dent re­search in­sti­tute ded­i­cat­ed sole­ly to study­ing con­nec­tions be­tween ag­ing and chron­ic dis­ease.

The mech­a­nisms be­hind mTOR — the mam­malian tar­get of ra­pamycin — are not ful­ly un­der­stood, but re­searchers be­lieve it plays key roles in cell me­tab­o­lism, growth and sur­vival, point­ing to a role in tu­mor for­ma­tion and type 2 di­a­betes, among oth­ers.

ven­Bio Part­ners and Sofinno­va In­vest­ments co-led the round, who joined found­ing in­vestors Apol­lo Health Ven­tures and Evotec SE.

The German billionaires behind BioNTech have found a new vaccine project to back.

Through their family office Athos Service, twin brothers Thomas and Andreas Strüngmann are leading a $25 million private placement into Switzerland’s AC Immune — which concurrently announced that it’s shelling out $58.7 million worth of stock to acquire Affiris’ portfolio of therapies targeting alpha-synuclein, including a vaccine candidate, for Parkinson’s disease.

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In a week that’s expected to see several biotechs price their IPOs, Candel Therapeutics got things kicked off Tuesday with a muted opener.

The company helmed by former GlaxoSmithKline vet Paul Peter Tak made its way to Nasdaq thanks to a $72 million raise, which was downsized by about 15% than originally anticipated, according to Renaissance Capital. Candel priced at $8 per share after initially seeking to launch in the $13 to $15 range.

As public and private companies stare down the reality of the Delta variant, many are now requiring that their employees or students be vaccinated against Covid-19 prior to attending school or to returning or starting a new job. Claims that such mandates are illegal or cannot be used for vaccines under emergency use authorizations have now been dismissed.

Setting the record straight, the Department of Justice on Monday called the mandates legal in a new memo, even when used for people with vaccines that remain subject to EUAs.