Financing
Stock shoots up over 460% on positive results in two ulcerative colitis trials of the oral first-in-class candidate.
Scrip discusses the latest M&A activity and trends with CEO Shawn Titcomb of Allele Capital and Cheryl Reicin, a partner focused on international life sciences activity at Mintz.
Public Company Edition: Sarepta restructured after stopping shipments of its Elevidys for some patients to ease future debt pressures, but now it has stopped shipments to all patients. Also, Madrigal secured up to $500m in new debt, Cogent closed a $230m offering and other financings.
Looking to improve on the efficacy and safety of Roche’s Esbriet and BI’s Ofev, Avalyn has inhalable formulations of those drugs in Phase IIb and Phase I, respectively.
With low valuations for biopharma companies that recently went public and little hope of a near-term turnaround as uncertainty lingers, IPO numbers may stay low for the rest of 2025.
Restructuring Edition: Karyopharm is reducing its workforce by 20% as it seeks alternatives to extend its cash runway, but Pacira’s production improvements created efficiency that necessitate an 8% layoff in manufacturing. Jasper, Century, Sage, Leap and Prothena also cut jobs.
Soleno Therapeutics will raise about $200m gross proceeds from an offering of 2.35m of its common stock to fund the commercialization of Vykat XR, which became the first drug for Prader-Willi syndrome to gain US approval on March 26.
The Swiss company believes its platform can make radiopharmaceuticals easier to produce and more accessible to patients.
Private Company Edition: Catalio raised more than $400m for its fourth health care-focused VC fund, while AN Venture Partners raised $200m for Japan and beyond. In VC financings, among a dearth of mega rounds, Neuron23’s $96.5m series D is the largest round in recent weeks.
While companies such as Eli Lilly and Roche have faced setbacks to their fibroblast activation protein-targeting oncology therapies, Actithera believes its radiopharmaceuticals platform will prove more successful.
Evaluate’s second quarter data show that VC rounds of $100m or more totaled $2.36bn, down from $5.25bn in Q2 of 2024. Overall, the Q2 total dropped year-over-year to $4.92bn from $7.95bn.
Public Company Edition: A breakthrough designation, data and deals prompted big follow-on public offerings in late June and early July, including $402.5m for Cidara, $250.8m for Kymera and $230m for Dyne. Also, Revolution Medicines accessed up to $2bn from Royalty Pharma.
The merger with a fellow Norwegian biotech comes a few months after its lead asset, bemcentinib, bit the dust.
Despite recent political turmoil, outside investor and corporate interest in South Korean biopharma innovation appears robust or even increasing.
Deal Snapshot: The French drugmaker has been shifting its investments away from cancer to focus on immunology and inflammation but it continues to seek out interesting early-stage oncology assets.
A track record of positive portfolio performance is described as an investment management skill. Taking difficult divestment decisions early, in challenging markets and outperforming benchmarks, are hallmarks of this skill. Syncona and Woodford Patient Capital offer useful case studies.
The biotech had been looking at options to survive since May.
The number of viable biotech companies exploiting a particular technology should be limited by intellectual property but the number of biotech IPOs exploiting that same technology always seems greater than those with freedom to operate.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission has proposed a new “growth tier” for the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, to reinstate the market’s listing standards for unprofitable firms.
Highlights from Day Four of the BIO International Convention include Woodcock offering practical advice on rare disease trials, the sorry state of dealmaking mid-year, Novartis discussing its approach to partnering, and Generate looking for funding to move into Phase III.