Finance Watch: Gossamer, Alector And Harpoon Launch First Biopharma IPOs Of 2019

Public Company Edition: Grossing $276m, Gossamer would have been the third-largest biopharma IPO in the US if it had launched last year. Also, recent public company financings include debt and follow-on offerings; and two more firms cut jobs – Capricor and Seres.

Finance Watch

With the US government reopened, the traditional path to an initial public offering is as well and biopharmaceutical companies are racing down that road as fast as they can in case the temporary end to the shutdown isn't extended by ongoing budget negotiations.

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AIRNA To Take RNA Editing Into The Clinic With $155m Series B Round

 
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CEO Kris Elverum told Scrip about the start-up’s platform for editing RNA to correct genetic variants that cause harm and to reproduce healthy variants as a means of treating disease.

Isomorphic Adds To Growing AI War Chest With First External Funding Round

 

The four-year-old firm said it plans to advance programs toward the clinic from the funding round, which comes just over a year after signing two major pharma partnerships.

Finance Watch: European And Japanese Biotechs See VC Investor Interest In March

 
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Private Company Edition: The latest group of drug developers to announce venture capital financings is remarkable for its geographic diversity, from Character Biosciences’ $93m series B round in the US to Augustine’s $85m series B in Belgium to a $29.2m series C for Aculys in Japan.

Japan T-Reg Venture RegCell Raises New Funds, Relocates To US

 
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Kyoto-based venture moves HQ to California to expand R&D and business outreach for its regulatory T-cell technology, as it raises around $46m in public and private funding.

More from Business

Will They Or Won’t They? Tariff Question Looms For Drugmakers

 

Pharma executives and investors are waiting with bated breath to find out if President Trump will include drugs in a new round of tariffs to be announced on 2 April.

Cerevance To Focus On Parkinson’s Adjunctive Therapy After Phase II Miss

 
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After failing a Phase II monotherapy study in early Parkinson’s, Cerevance will focus on adjunctive therapy without abandoning the monotherapy concept.

Baxdrostat, AstraZeneca’s Next Big CVRM Bet

 
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The firm has lofty ambitions for the aldosterone synthase inhibitor to treat hypertension and kidney disease.