JPMorgan Deal Review: Boston Scientific Acquisition, Big Funding Round for Parabalis, Enodia and More

The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference attracts a lot of attention from the healthcare industry, making the event a popular time to announce deals. There haven't been many acquisition announcements this year. Aside from the Boston Scientific acquisition, no major M&A deals were announced during the meeting. Perhaps this is because so many acquisitions were announced as 2024 draws to a close.

Attendees were in an upbeat mood, with some suggesting Aktis Oncology's IPO could be a sign that the biotech IPO market is reopening. Funding activity is also increasing for startups, with many companies making new funding announcements during JPMorgan Week. While most of the funding was for clinical-stage companies, the round also included some seed-stage companies, which could reverse the slowdown in seed and early-stage venture capital activity reported by JPMorgan Chase in its Q4 2025 Biopharma and Licensing report.

Here's a look back at some of the deals announced ahead of the meeting and during JPMorgan Week:

Immunology and inflammation

—Caldera Therapeutics was founded and has raised $112.5 million to date to support CLD-423, a bispecific antibody in early clinical development for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and other immune and inflammatory diseases. The round of financing was invested by Atlas Venture, LAV and venBio, amounting to US$75 million. Recently, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup said it had completed a $37.5 million Series A-1 round led by Omega Funds.

Mirador Therapeutics said it closed a $250 million Series B round in the third quarter of 2025 to bring its clinical-stage program into clinical proof-of-concept and support the rest of its pipeline. Mirador expects to have clinical results from more than 10 studies by the end of 2027, across indications such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Mirador launches in 2024 with $400 million in backing. The company's latest financing includes new investments from funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Adage Capital Partners, and other funds managed by Fidelity Management & Research Company.

—Enodia Therapeutics has raised €20.7 million (approximately $25 million) to support the development of small molecule target protein degradation drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The seed round was co-led by Elaia, Pfizer Ventures and Bpifrance.

—Poplar Therapeutics launches $50 million to fund ongoing Phase 1 testing of PHB-050, an anti-immunoglobulin E antibody being developed to treat food allergies. Data is expected to be released in the second half of 2026. SR One, Vida Ventures and Platanus led Poplar’s ​​Series A funding round.

cancer drugs

— Parabilis Medicines (formerly FogPharma) announced a $305 million funding round as lead cancer drug zolukatide (FOG-001) enters a registrational study against desmoid tumors. The company will also continue to explore the potential use of the peptide drug in other tumor types. RA Capital Management, Fidelity Management & Research Company and Janus Henderson Investors co-led Parabilis’ Series F financing.

Vibrant Therapeutics has raised $61 million to prepare for clinical testing in the United States of VIB305, a T cell engagement prodrug designed to remain inactive in the circulation and healthy tissue but selectively activate in the tumor microenvironment. The startup, which has operations in Guangzhou, China, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the financing adds new investors Pfizer Ventures and Apricot Capital.

—Cell therapy biotech Orca Bio raised $250 million to prepare for the potential commercialization of Orca-T, an allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy developed for leukemia. The target date for an FDA regulatory decision on Orca-T is April 6. Lightspeed Ventures led Orca Bio’s Series F funding round.

—Rakuten Medical is spending $100 million to fund a global Phase 3 trial of ASP-1929 in combination with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda as a first-line treatment for recurrent head and neck cancer. Rakuten photoimmunotherapy has two key steps: administering the treatment and then using a medical device to illuminate the target cells to instantly activate the drug. TaiAx Life Science Fund led Rakuten’s Series F funding round.

—Soley Therapeutics has $200 million to support its pipeline, which includes two internally discovered cancer drugs and programs in areas such as neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases. Surveyor Capital is the lead investor in Soley’s Series C funding round.

—EpiBiologics secured $107 million in funding to advance lead program EPI-326, a tissue-selective bispecific antibody designed to degrade all oncogenic forms of the cancer protein EGFR, into the clinic. The company plans to test the drug in non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. GV and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC co-led EpiBiologics’ Series B financing.

rare disease

Diagonal Therapeutics has earmarked $125 million for clinical testing of DIAG723, which the startup is developing to correct the underlying cause of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), a rare blood vessel disease for which there is no FDA-approved treatment. The drug, an aggregated antibody, may also become a treatment for pulmonary hypertension. Diagonal launches in 2024 with $128 million in funding. The latest round of Series B funding was co-led by Sanofi Ventures and Janus Henderson Investors.

diagnosis

— Precision diagnostic startup Precede Biosciences received $83.5 million in new financing. The startup's technology analyzes patients' blood to inform diagnostic and treatment decisions; it is also used by companies developing precision medicine. Pressed said the new funding will support the commercialization of its technology. The financing is divided into a $63.5 million Series B round and a $20 million non-dilutive credit facility. New investors in the Series B round include Labcorp Venture Fund, UPMC Enterprises, Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, Mirae Asset Capital, 28 Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.

respiratory diseases

—AirNexis Therapeutics launches with $200 million in Series A financing to support Phase 2 testing of AN01, a PDE3/4 inhibitor in development for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The inhaled drug is licensed by Hesco Pharmaceutical Group. AirNexis' financing was led by Frazier Life Sciences.

—Kinaset Therapeutics closes $103 million Series B financing to support Phase 2 testing of frevectinib, An inhaled pan-JAK inhibitor in development for the treatment of asthma. New investors RA Capital Management and Forge Life Science Partners led the financing.

Cell therapy, genetic medicine

—Medipost, a company developing allogeneic stem cell therapies derived from umbilical cord blood, raised $140 million. The Capital will support Phase 3 testing of its mesenchymal stem cells to treat knee osteoarthritis. Skylake Equity Partners and Crescenda Equity Partners led the round.

—Aurora Therapeutics, founded by CRISPR gene editing pioneers Jennifer Doudna and Fyodor Urnov, invests $16 million to support the development of personalized gene editing therapies Treating rare genetic mutations that have historically been impossible to address at scale. Menlo Ventures provided seed financing for Aurora.

—Beacon Therapeutics has raised more than $75 million to complete pivotal testing of laru-zova, a gene therapy in development to treat X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. Goldman Sachs Alternative Investments' life sciences unit led the Series C round, which will also support other projects in Beacon's pipeline.

cardiometabolic diseases

—Alveus Therapeutics launches $159.8 million to support a pipeline of obesity drugs led by ALV-100, a fusion protein targeting GLP-1 and GIP, Amgen's MariTide addresses the same two goals. New Rhine Healthcare Investors, Andera Partners and Omega Funds led Alveus' Series A funding round.

—Corsera Health raises $80 million to begin Phase I testing of COR-1004, a small interfering RNA therapy that targets the liver protein PCSK9, a driver of high cholesterol. The funding will also support the development of platform technology to predict lifetime cardiovascular disease risk. Forbion and Population Health Partners co-led the Series A funding round.

Medical Technology Offers

— Boston Scientific agreed to acquire Penumbra for $14.5 billion in cash and stock, a deal that values ​​the maker of neurovascular and peripheral vascular devices at about $374 a share. Penumbra's product portfolio includes mechanical thrombectomy and vascular devices used to treat conditions such as stroke, pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis, which will advance Boston Scientific's cardiovascular and neurovascular products. Separately, Boston Scientific reached an agreement last week to acquire Valencia Technologies, which makes an implantable tibial nerve stimulation system used to treat urinary incontinence. Financial terms were not disclosed.

—Nvidia and Eli Lilly will invest $1 billion over five years to build a joint innovation lab in South San Francisco. The lab will bring together Eli Lilly's biology, chemistry and medical experts with NVIDIA's artificial intelligence engineers to create more powerful models to speed the identification and validation of new drug molecules. The partners said a focus will be on building a “continuous learning system” that connects Eli Lilly's wet labs with computational dry labs so that artificial intelligence can assist researchers around the clock and improve experiments and model development. The laboratory is expected to be operational early this year.

—OpenAI acquires medical records startup Torch to enhance its newly launched healthcare products. The equity value of the deal is reportedly $100 million. Torch's technology unifies fragmented health data, including lab results, medications and doctor visit records, into a single longitudinal medical profile that will now be used to provide ChatGPT Health users with more relevant health insights. The goal is to enhance ChatGPT Health's ability to generate more personalized and clinically relevant responses.

—VieCure raises $43 million to expand use of its platform to help clinicians design personalized cancer treatment plans at the point of care. The platform combines clinical data, molecular test results and treatment guidelines to help oncologists develop a care plan for each patient. Danaher co-founder Mitch Rales and Northpond Ventures led VieCure's round of funding, which the company said will accelerate its mission to expand access to precision oncology, particularly in community cancer clinics where most patients receive treatment.

Katie Adams contributed to this report.

Photo by Flickr user jchessma via Creative Commons license