Financing

A court order encompassing funding, drug pricing, clinical trials and overall policy implementation aspects is expected to bring about a paradigm shift in the treatment of rare diseases in India. Sarepta, Roche and Sanofi are among the key players that have been part of pricing discussions.

ARM’s Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa offered optimism that a biopharma financial market recovery is under way, but cell and gene therapies still are seen as risky investments.

Public Company Edition: Upstream grossed $255m and CAMP4 raised $75m in October’s first initial public offerings. In follow-on offerings, Crinetics and Scholar Rock brought in $500m and $300m, respectively. Also, Turnstone cut 60% of its workforce and Gritstone filed for bankruptcy.

Data from Evaluate show that biopharma venture capital investment fell from $7.95bn in Q2 to $6.59bn in Q3, but both outpaced every quarter in 2023 as the financial market recovery continues.

Recent major developments in the Korean biotech sector include Orum Therapeutics’ IPO plan and HLB’s US resubmission for the approval of rivoceranib in combination with camrelizumab for first-line liver cancer.

But biotechs are still having to price their offerings lower than they had planned.    

Purespring has just raised $105m from an investor syndicate who are betting it can develop the first gene therapy for kidney disease and learn from setbacks experienced in the space.

Emerging from ARCH, City Therapeutics has launched with $135m in series A funding and the Alnylam founder as its executive chairman.

Judo Bio, incubated for three years by Atlas Venture to deliver siRNA and other genetic medicines to the kidney, came out of stealth mode with $100m and new CEO Rajiv Patni.

Public Company Edition: Septerna, Apimeds, CAMP4 and Upstream filed paperwork with the SEC aiming to take advantage of renewed investor interest in IPOs. Also, Biohaven closed a $287.5m offering and Grifols subsidiary GigaGen obtained up to $135m from BARDA.

The Swedish company is well positioned, and well financed with a bit of help from the French major, to push its idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis hopeful buloxibutid closer to the regulatory finishing line.

Private Company Edition: ARCH raised more than $3bn for its eighth fund, Frazier added $630m to its public fund that also can back crossover rounds, DCVC’s third biotech fund totaled $400m and Asabys raised €180m ($200m) for its second fund. Also, Aktis closed a $175m series B round. 

A new contender emerges in obesity with pipeline assets from Jiangsu Hengrui, including a Phase III dual agonist, and an experienced team already focused on commercial hurdles.

The German group is spinning off from Eckert & Ziegler and listing in Frankfurt, though a leap to the NASDAQ will likely follow once it has more data on a lymphoma theranostic.

Public Company Edition: BioAge will fund a Phase II trial of its muscle atrophy prevention drug in combination with an obesity drug with its initial public offering proceeds. Also, Ascendis and Wave raised $281.3m and $200m, respectively, after positive clinical trial readouts.

Private Company Edition: Vicebio plans to take a combo vaccine into Phase I with its $100m series B venture capital round. Also, Nura Bio raised $68m to boost its series A total to $141m and George Church-founded GC Therapeutics launched with $75m, among other recent VC deals.

Public Company Edition: Follow-on public offerings brought in $500m for Nuvalent, $235m for Summit and $225m each for Centessa and Viridian after recent readouts. Also, Kairos raised $6.2m in this year’s 19th IPO, Bayer sold €750m ($834m) in bonds and an Ionis FOPO grossed $500.3m.

MBX, Zenas and Bicara delivered positive returns in their first days of trading, but that has not always translated to good long-term results for drug developers that launched US IPOs this year.

The US company believes it can not only beat Keytruda at its own game, but also achieve success where Merck & Co's blockbuster and other immunotherapies have failed.

Private Company Edition: Bain will invest across private and public drug, device, diagnostic and tool companies. Also, Candid debuted with $370m in initial funding, Superluminal closed a $120m series A round, PanTera raised €93m ($102.4m) in series A cash and F2G brought in $100m.