Finance Watch: Big Financings Show Investors Remain Interested In Certain Opportunities

Plenty of biopharmaceutical firms continue to struggle to raise fresh capital under current financial market conditions with drug developer valuations still well below what they were a few years ago and initial public offerings few and far between. However, plenty of private and public companies also have been able to raise big money this year, including Apollo Therapeutics Group Ltd. and Nimbus Therapeutics, Inc., which recently raised $226.5m and $210m, respectively, in venture capital financings.

Mariana Oncology Inc. CEO Simon Read told Scrip in an interview about the company’s $175m series B round on 7 September that, in his firm’s experience raising its second VC round, it appeared that even in this relatively difficult financing environment there still is money available for biopharma ventures with strong management teams and differentiated research and development pipelines. Read’s observation aligns with predictions since the start of 2023 that financing would remain available for certain opportunities, especially those with novel ideas and near-term value-creating milestones