Finance Watch: No Big Post-ASCO Follow-On Frenzy, But Biotech Had A Good Week

SPAC On, SPAC Off As Anew Goes Public, Greenlight Goes Private

Public Company Edition: Follow-on offerings did not surge after ASCO, but Day One and Cogent raised $150m-plus. Also, IQVIA and Ionis sold $1.25bn and $500m in notes, while Krystal and Lexicon grossed $160m and $125m from post-approval offerings.

Finance Watch Public Company
• Source: Alamy

The American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting often is followed by several follow-on public offerings (FOPOs) by small- to mid-sized public biotech companies reporting positive data at the meeting, but in the six days since the meeting only two cancer drug developers have raised cash in large post-ASCO offerings – Day One Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cogent Biosciences, Inc.

More from Financing

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

 
• By 

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

 
• By 

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.

Isomorphic Adds To Growing AI War Chest With First External Funding Round

 

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.

Finance Watch: European And Japanese Biotechs See VC Investor Interest In March

 
• By 

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.

More from Business

Boehringer Boss Talks Tariffs And State Of Play In The US

 
• By 

The German firm’s chairman, Hubertus von Baumbach, is adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to the threat of pharma tariffs.

Trump Tariffs – Indian Pharma Dodges Bullet, But Sword Still Hangs?

 
• By 

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?

Pharma Exhales, Dodging A Financial Blow With Tariff Exemption

 

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.