Financing

Public Company Edition: Lilly’s obesity franchise makes it the highest-valued health care company in the US. Also, Genmab accesses $4.5bn to fund its $8bn Merus buy, Moderna locks in a $1.5bn credit facility and Ionis sells $700m worth of notes.

The success of AimedBio’s IPO may indicate investors are returning to the South Korean biopharma sector amid a series of large global out-licensing deals by domestic ventures and the strong performance of some recent biotech debutants on Kosdaq.

Restructuring Edition: Nxera will cut its workforce by 15% in Japan and the UK, among other changes. Also, nearing the end of its cash, Applied Therapeutics cuts 46% of its employees, Korro will cut staffing by 34% as it shifts focus and Metagenomi revealed a 25% workforce reduction.

Still betting on its vaccines portfolio, Moderna is also hoping to deliver on its ambitions in oncology with a Phase III candidate partnered with Merck, while cutting pipeline programs and seeking manufacturing efficiencies.

Private Company Edition: Solve Therapeutics raised $120m in new funding for its Phase I ADC programs and CloakLink linker platform, while Artios will use its $115m series D cash to fund Phase II trials for its drugs targeting the DNA damage response in cancer, plus other recent VC financings.

Continued success in building biotech companies and finding big pharma buyers has convinced investors to put a record sum into Sofinnova’s latest fund.

Zydus looks to fill up its coffers ahead of the next round of acquisitions, likely in the specialty drugs space, while US FDA approvals for generics to Lynparza and Vumerity and its first approvals in China and Canada point to a healthy pipeline

Medicxi V marks the venture capital firm's biggest fund till date, raising its tally to six funds in the last decade, totaling over €2bn.

The investor event will bring deal-hungry big pharma and biotech execs together but input from the FDA’s unsettled leadership will be missing this year.

Byterna, Starna, Vivacta and DeliNova ride surging investor sentiment on in vivo CAR-T assets to secure venture funding.

Public Company Financings: Biomedtracker’s third quarter report shows a big jump from Q2 in follow-on offerings, private placements and debt. Also, Evommune brings the US biopharma IPO tally for 2025 to a dozen and Merck’s Blackstone deal gives it $700m to develop a key ADC asset.

Private Company Edition: Braveheart Bio licensed its selective cardiac myosin inhibitor from Hengrui. Also, Arena BioWorks shuts down after raising $500m in 2024, GHO Capital closed a €2.5bn ($2.9bn) private equity fund and new cash brings Tubulis’s series C to €344m ($401m).

Lower interest rates, M&A activity and a string of positive clinical trial readouts have boosted biopharma investor sentiment in a recovery that appears sustainable, according to William Blair healthcare capital markets managing director Kevin Eisele.

While other gene therapies disease areas have fallen out of favor, eye disease candidates seem to be attracting more funding. Italy-based AAVantgarde is the latest to achieve a mega-round.

Public Company Edition: MapLight grossed $288.4m plus $8.1m from a private placement to fund neuropsychiatry clinical trials. Also, Evommune set a price range for its pending IPO of up to $183.3m, Sanofi priced a $3bn bond issue and Arcus raised $250m in a follow-on offering.

With Phase II data for sutacimig in Glanzmann thrombasthenia in hand, Hemab’s series C round will fund a pivotal trial as well as a Phase II study for HMB-002 in von Willebrand disease.

Public Company Edition: From Praxis’s $525m offering and Summit’s $500m private placement to Valneva’s $500m in new debt and Cidara’s $339m BARDA award, publicly traded firms are raising big money from diverse sources while biopharma stock valuations are on an upswing.

Private Company Edition: Electra will run a Phase II/III trial for ELA026 and advance a second SIRP-targeting drug with its new cash. Also, cardiovascular-focused Kardigan raised $254m, while Veradermics and Pelage brought in $150m and $120m, respectively, for hair loss treatments.

With a mechanism better known for its use in breast cancer, Elevara believes its CDK4/6 inhibitor candidate could help more patients with rheumatoid arthritis reach complete remission.

Faeth Therapeutics raised $25m to complete a Phase II trial of its PIK3/mTOR-targeting drug combination in endometrial cancer and reported positive Phase II data at ESMO in ovarian cancer with half of the combo.