The last week of February wasn’t an ideal time for any company to launch an initial public offering, with US stock market indices trading lower on coronavirus fears, but Passage Bio Inc. took a chance with both new and existing investors to fund clinical development of its gene therapy candidates for rare monogenic central nervous system (CNS) diseases.
Finance Watch: Coronavirus-Related Stock Market Meltdown Didn’t Stop Passage Bio IPO
Public Company Edition: The gene therapy firm’s IPO priced at $18 and ended its first day up 23.3% at $22.20 but fell to $21.50 when stocks recovered on 2 March. Also, RedHill raised $115m for product launches and Movantik purchase, and Avadel raised $65m to compete with Jazz.
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Public Company Edition: Stock valuations are falling due to political, economic and regulatory uncertainty, resulting in fewer large public offerings, more alternative financings and cost cuts. Carisma, Tenaya, BioAtla, Arbutus, Nkarta, Alector and Adaptimmune announced layoffs.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The US FDA approved anti-CD19 antibody Uplizna, from Amgen’s $27.8bn purchase of Horizon in 2023, for IgG4-related disease – a larger market than its original NMOSD indication.
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It might be the beginning of the end for the orphan drugs party but there is still sales growth enjoyment to be had for the sector, whose star performers are now looking increasingly like mainstream drugs.