April has been an astonishing month for biopharmaceutical venture capital investment, with billions of dollars in new financings and new VC funds. About $1bn in new venture rounds were announced during the last two weeks alone, including a $200m series B round for Erasca Inc.
Finance Watch: Erasca Raises $200m As VC Mega-Rounds Continue
Private Company Edition: In addition to Erasca’s big series B round, Mabwell reportedly brought in $278m. Also, Kurma, Venrock and Section bring the number of new VC funds in April to eight, raising $5.89bn, and former AveXis execs launched the new gene therapy venture Taysha.
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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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BeiGene’s Phase III ociperlimab joins the list of failed TIGIT inhibitors, as candidates from Roche, Merck & Co. and others have failed late-stage studies.
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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.