Finance Watch

Private Company Edition: After just seven venture capital rounds of $100m or more in January and February, five have been announced already in March, including a $200m series A round for Cargo Therapeutics, Chroma Medicine’s $135m series B financing and $112m for Noema’s series B.

Public Company Edition: Summit initiated the big rights offering earlier this year as promised in December when it licensed Akeso’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific. Also, Teva sold $2.49bn in sustainability-linked notes to pay down debt, while MorphoSys, Novavax and others restructured and cut jobs.

With cash preservation in mind, Rubius will dissolve, while EQRx, Impel, Cybin and Graphite cut jobs. Meanwhile, Jounce is restructuring and it plans to merge with Redx, yet the dually troubled firms MEI Pharma and Infinity will combine, while VBL will disappear in a reverse merger with Notable Labs. 

Public Company Edition: Aileron, Talaris and Frequency said they will reduce expenses and seek options for maximizing shareholder returns under tough stock market conditions. However, CureVac and Supernus are among firms recently able to access new cash – $250m and $150m, respectively.

Private Company Edition: Alexis Borisy and his Curie.Bio co-founders will invest $5m-$7m to help companies get to lead optimization within 12-18 months. Also, Feng Zhang-founded Aera launched with $193m, Hexagon Bio raised a $77.3m series B round and Halda emerged with $76m.

Public Company Edition: Mineralys launches the second $100m-plus initial public offering of 2023 and trades higher in its first day. Also, Collegium sells $210m worth of notes, Eliem cuts 55% of its jobs at it shifts to preclinical and Aligos de-prioritizes hepatitis B while reducing its workforce another 10%.

Public Company Edition: Structure Therapeutics’ upsized initial public offering raises $161.1m, surpassing proposed terms for up to $134.3m. Also, Pliant capitalizes on good data with a $287.5m follow-on offering, while Magenta seeks strategic alternatives and Instil reveals more job cuts.

Private Company Edition: Patient Square’s private equity fund, which surpassed its $3bn fundraising goal, may invest broadly across health care but the firm already has invested heavily in biopharma. Also, investor Dimension launches with a $350m specialized VC fund and Alto increased its series B to $60m.

Recent financings, including the $150m launch of Pathalys and a planned $100m IPO for Mineralys, illustrate the reality of biopharma funding in 2023 – that having near-term clinical trial milestones are key to fundraising this year. Companies with dwindling cash are conserving the funds they have left.

Public Company Edition: Also, Johnson & Johnson’s consumer health spin-out Kenvue filed paperwork to get the ball rolling on an initial public offering. In addition, Geron raised $198m and Madrigal accessed more than $300m after positive trial readouts, but layoffs were revealed by Editas, Elevation, Nabriva and others.

Private Company Edition: While Coya Therapeutics raised $15.25m in the final initial public offering in the US last year, Apnimed stayed private raising $80m in a series C extension and Metagenomi extended its series B by $100m to total $275m.

Private Company Edition: Pitchbook is out with an early look at its venture capital expectations for next year, showing continued interest in seed financings and fewer $100m-plus mega-rounds. Recent VC deals include a $75m series B financing for Alpha-9 Theranostics and $71.6m for A2 Biotherapeutics.