The once-shocking $100m-plus venture capital round is not such a shock anymore in the biopharmaceutical sector, since the number of mega-rounds has increased over the last few years as drug development has become more complicated and costly. Massive early investments are needed to design novel algorithms and machines for unlocking previously undruggable targets and to advance cell and gene therapies with complex manufacturing needs.
Finance Watch: Mega-Rounds Balance Out Influx Of Smaller VC Deals
Average Deal Size Is Up But Falling As Investment Dips
Private Company Edition: The amount of venture capital investment in biopharma companies has shrunk from quarter to quarter, but the average deal size remained high until the third quarter. Larger rounds from Treeline, Odyssey and Neumora offset a plethora of smaller VC financings early in Q4.
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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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Kyoto-based venture moves HQ to California to expand R&D and business outreach for its regulatory T-cell technology, as it raises around $46m in public and private funding.
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After failing a Phase II monotherapy study in early Parkinson’s, Cerevance will focus on adjunctive therapy without abandoning the monotherapy concept.
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The firm has lofty ambitions for the aldosterone synthase inhibitor to treat hypertension and kidney disease.
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Supply chain disruption fears at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused drug over-ordering. Imminent tariffs on drugs may have had a similar effect on pharma sales in Q1 earnings season.