Public Company Edition: Discussions at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 8-11 January in San Francisco should offer some insight on industry’s and investors’ expectations about the financial markets in 2024. The year started with some big financings, but also some new job cuts.

Start-up hopes to bring its first candidate, an NY-ESO-1-targeting off-the-shelf product, into the clinic in Q2. Astex and Cardiff University team up on novel therapies for neurodegenerative disease.

Public Company Edition: The last biopharma IPO in the US was on 17 February and none have been scheduled, so far, for March. Also, another SPAC merger is called off, Travere sells $275m worth of notes and Xeris secures $150m in new debt, while Ovid, Passage Bio and others are cutting jobs. 

Ventus Therapeutics raised a $140m series C while Endeavor Biomedicines brought in $101m in series B cash. Also, Twist Bioscience grossed $250m in a follow-on offering, BioMarin raised $110m when it sold a priority review voucher and Nuvectis, TC BioPharm launched IPOs.