Financing
Over the past few months, Chinese developers of CNS and cardiometabolic therapies have attracted the interest of domestic investors, amid generally modest funding activity.
The Swiss biotech firm could go public on the NASDAQ later this year, and points to other preclinical dealmaking in the space to back its strategy.
As ADCs continue to be a growth area globally, a new US-based venture with novel platform technology has emerged from stealth mode with $20m in funding.
The CEO of a South Korean state-run drug R&D support fund urges the renewal of the initiative as it increasingly focuses on new modalities and novel targets.
As investors have begun to ask troubled drug developers to suspend operations and return remaining cash to shareholders, Alis has stepped forward with a new fund aiming to facilitate that.
Restructuring Edition: ESSA and Elevation are reviewing strategic alternatives after trial failures, but each has an investor urging them to liquidate. Also, Third Harmonic and Vincerx are winding down, while Keros and Tempest are assessing options, but Opthea and OPM are cutting jobs.
Private Company Edition: After Q1 venture capital investment slumped relative to 2024 totals due to declines in both smaller financings and mega-rounds, Q2 started off with six $100m-plus financings in the first half of April after there were only three in February and six in all off March.
Lead drug GLM101 will move into its first placebo-controlled trial based on positive results in adults and adolescents with PMM2-CDG in an open-label Phase IIa study.
Several biotech execs said they don’t expect much impact from the Trump administration’s threatened tariffs but are reviewing business practices to prepare.
Evaluate data show that biopharma companies raising cash in the smallest and largest categories of venture capital financings struggled to meet bars set in prior quarters.
There were six biopharma initial public offerings on Western stock exchanges, including five in the US, during the first quarter, but plunging stock values could halt further IPOs.
Public Company Edition: Stock valuations are falling due to political, economic and regulatory uncertainty, resulting in fewer large public offerings, more alternative financings and cost cuts. Carisma, Tenaya, BioAtla, Arbutus, Nkarta, Alector and Adaptimmune announced layoffs.
CEO Kris Elverum told Scrip about the start-up’s platform for editing RNA to correct genetic variants that cause harm and to reproduce healthy variants as a means of treating disease.
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.
The Belgian firm banks nearly €77.7m to push its Charcot-Marie-Tooth to proof-of-concept.
A new report from a domestic institute on South Korea’s biopharma M&A trends shows a pickup in activity, but that this remains relatively weak and small-scale. It calls for broader domestic government support to build expertise, drive innovation and globalization.
Public Company Edition: Cargo suspended development and cut 90% of its workforce to focus on strategic alternatives, while Pyxis and Kiromic laid off or furloughed employees. Also, Pfizer sold its remaining Haleon shares for $3.3bn, Galderma sold $1bn in bonds and other financings.
Private Company Edition: There have been five $100m-plus VC rounds so far this month, up from three in all of February. Flagship unveiled Lila Sciences with $200m, while Curevo and Insilico raised $110m in series B and E rounds, respectively. Also, Arbor Biotech garnered $73.9m.