The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that a Montreal biotech start-up has secured a huge early-stage financing as it aims to develop "precision oncology" drugs which target cancerous tumours. The Globe's Sean Silcoff writes that Repare Therapeutics Inc., led by veteran Montreal biotech executive Lloyd Segal, has raised $68-million (U.S.) in a deal co-led by San Francisco-based Versant Ventures and Boston's MPM Capital -- and backed by U.S. drug giant Celgene and Canadian investors Fonds de solidarite FTQ and BDC Capital. It is the sixth Canadian firm to be created, incubated and financed by Versant, one of the most active foreign investors in Canada's reviving biotech industry. Since 2003, Versant has opened incubators in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal and its six firms here have raised a combined $600-million-plus (Canadian), led by BlueRock Therapeutics' $225-million (U.S.) financing last fall from Versant and Bayer AG. Sixty-five Versant-backed firms have been acquired or gone public since 1999. In April, Zymeworks completed the largest Canadian biotech initial public offering in a decade, raising $59-million (U.S.). In March, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals sold $150.5-million in stock.