Restructuring

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.

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 biotech is cutting jobs and discontinuing development of its anti-CD47 bispecific for blood cancers and moving its focus to SL-325, which targets the TL1A-DR3 axis in autoimmune diseases.

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.

Reorganization creating in Human Foods Program makes the work of additional staff available for dietary supplement office programs. FDA’s “got a little tiny workforce” for “a huge industry,” says Commissioner Robert Califf.

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.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors outsource much of their drug discovery and clinical development efforts to contract organizations. Investors’ reduced appetite for biotech is now impacting those contractors.

Restructuring Edition: BioMarin’s layoffs are associated with strategic shifts announced during its second quarter update. Also, Repare reduced its workforce by 25% as it focused in on clinical-stage programs and Aadi cut 80% of its R&D team to conserve cash after a clinical trial failure. 

Weak demand for virus-blocking nasal sprays since the pandemic has left Austrian biotech Marinomed with mounting debts. The company has applied for restructuring proceedings with an Austrian court in an attempt to secure its future.

Restructuring Edition: Lykos recruited a J&J veteran to help its slimmed-down staff resubmit its MDMA-based PTSD therapy. Also, Lexicon cut its field force by 50%, or 75 jobs; Viracta cut its solid tumor program and 23% of its workforce; and Boundless Bio streamlined with moderate job cuts.