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Financing
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.
Marabio Systems says the new funding will help accelerate efforts to bring a blood test to market in 2025 that will accurately determine if a mother is a carrier of antibodies that cause MARA, a subtype of autism that believe to cause more severe behavior.
But biotechs are still having to price their offerings lower than they had planned.
The big news in Q3 2024 was the acquisition of Exscientia by Recursion, which has now expanded its pipeline and gained access to more contracts, but this quarter was also marked by numerous seed rounds and M&As, with the strengthening of existing companies and emergence of new ones into what is becoming a crowded space.
Dealmaking trends in 2024 point toward a healthier financial ecosystem than in 2023. However, with a challenging three quarters in 2024, enthusiasm should be curbed as 2024 rounds out in a slow and steady manner.
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.