The end of 2023 is proving no different from the end of any other year, with venture capital firms and biopharmaceutical companies closing out a flurry of new VC funds and financings before December draws to a close. Even with investment in the industry down substantially from 2022, interest in novel medicines and technologies continues at a multibillion-dollar pace.
Finance Watch: The Rush To End 2023 With Fresh VC Cash For Biopharma
Three New Funds And An Investment Strategy Launched
Private Company Edition: Playground’s third fund has $410m for tech, including biotech, Pivotal Life Sciences closed its second fund with $389m and Chugai will invest $200m through its new fund. Also, Tome launched with $213m, Sudo raised a $116m series B and Odyssey closed a $101m in series C.

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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.
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.
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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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.
Stock prices plummeted, particularly for vaccine makers and cell and gene therapy developers, after the US FDA’s top biologics overseer resigned over vaccine misinformation concerns.
Seeking cell therapy approaches to cure type 1 diabetes, Vertex abandons a candidate encapsulated to avoid immune system detection but hopes to file another candidate for approval in 2026.