Finance Watch: Certain Offerings Find Their Way To Investors In Tough Market

Plummeting stock prices for biotechnology companies and declining valuations across the industry were common topics at the BIO International Convention 13-16 June in San Diego. However, attendees also looked for signs of hope in the current environment, including the ability of publicly traded drug developers to still be able to raise money through follow-on offerings and other means after reporting positive clinical trial results, as Scholar Rock and Day One Biopharmaceuticals Inc. did recently.

Scholar Rock, whose highly anticipated Phase III results for myostatin inhibitor apitegromab in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are not expected until 2024, released 24-month data on 17 June from its Phase II TOPAZ clinical trial of the drug in non-ambulatory patients with SMA types 2 and 3, which the company said showed “sizeable and sustained” motor function improvement