The ongoing financial market turmoil for biopharma has put an end to Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.’s plan to spin out its gene therapy business in a separate publicly traded company called Caritas Therapeutics, Inc. Caritas was set to go public by merging with the special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) ARYA Sciences Acquisition Corp. IV, but Amicus and ARYA IV announced on 24 February that they have terminated the merger agreement due to market conditions.
Finance Watch: Financial Market Turmoil Ends Amicus SPAC Deal For Gene Therapy Spinout
Rare Disease Specialist Unveils Layoffs, R&D Reprioritization
Public Company Edition: As their stock prices plummet, Adagio reshuffles its research plan and names a new CEO, while Yumanity restructures and seeks strategic alternatives. Also, Bristol sells $6bn worth of notes, Amgen issues $750m green bond, and Inhibrx and Amryt amend and refinance debt.
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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 German firm’s chairman, Hubertus von Baumbach, is adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to the threat of pharma tariffs.
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Trump announced a 26% reciprocal tariff on India but a country-agnostic exemption of pharmaceuticals implies that the interests of Indian firms and the US consumer are protected for now. What is Indian pharma’s business exposure and what is domestic industry saying?
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Industry lobbied for pharmaceuticals to be exempt from Trump’s sweeping US tariffs and the effort appears to have paid off. J&J, Lilly and Merck & Co. even got shout outs.