Finance Watch: Scorpion Closes $162m Series B, Bringing Recent Total To $270m

$1.67bn In New VC Deals Includes Nearly $1bn In Two Days

Private Company Edition: The pre-J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference financing news deluge during the first week of 2021 included several significant venture capital deals, including a $226m series B round for Affinivax, Ikena’s $120m series B round and an $88m series A round for Aro.

Finance Watch

The week before the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference always includes a bevy of new financings and the week before this year’s 11-14 January meeting kept up with the tradition with $1.67bn in venture capital deals announced through 8 January.

More from Financing

Q1 VC Financings Fall Short As Early Deals, Mega-Rounds Dip

 
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Evaluate data show that biopharma companies raising cash in the smallest and largest categories of venture capital financings struggled to meet bars set in prior quarters.

Q1 IPOs Rise From Q4, But Unstable Markets Could Slow New Offerings

 
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There were six biopharma initial public offerings on Western stock exchanges, including five in the US, during the first quarter, but plunging stock values could halt further IPOs.

Finance Watch: As Stocks Tumble, Offerings Slow, Financial Alternatives Rise

 
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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.

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.

More from Business

China Deal-Making Matures As Foreign Partners Derisk Asset Acquisition

 
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Chinese biopharma companies’ alliance strategies are transitioning from immediate cash needs to more strategic management of portfolios, as MNCs continue to hunt for derisked assets.

Regulatory And Macroeconomic Uncertainty Hang Over Q1 Earnings Season

 

As drugmakers update investors on first quarter financial performance, uncertainty around global trade and US regulatory oversight is likely to dominate discussions.

UK Promises To ‘Turbo-Charge’ Clinical Trials As Tariff Threat Remains

 

Faced with Trump’s hostile tariff moves, the UK aims to speed up clinical trial start times to support its pharma sector and invest £600m in a new health data research service.