Lon Cardon, senior vice-president of alternative discovery and development at GSK, said: "The initiative is modeled in part on GSK's successful Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) program, which now has eight projects underway with universities in the US, Canada and the UK."

GSK will provide company seed funding, research and development support and success-based preclinical and clinical milestones up to a total of $465m for 10 companies.

Portola said it had raised $317.3m in convertible preferred stock from its investors and $167m in license fees from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, BMS and Pfizer.

Gene control life sciences company Syros Pharmaceuticals has raised its first ever round of funding with a $30m series A round from Flagship Ventures, Arch Venture Partners and WuXi PharmTech Corporate Venture Fund.

Medical start-up NovoPedics, founded by University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey academics, raises $500k for knee repair.

Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Novartis Venture Funds back AMP's A round.

BIVF is also an investor in the Inserm Transfert Initiative.

Healthspot has raised at least $10.4m in its planned $20m series C round to fund primary care kiosks in retail pharmacies, according to its latest regulatory filing.

Alongside Pfizer Venture Investments, which led the financing, were venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates and property debt manager Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

GenSight Biologics, a ophthalmic therapeutics using gene therapy, has raised $41.8m in series A funding from backers Novartis Venture Fund, Abingworth LLP, Versant Ventures and Index Ventures.