Finance Watch

VC funding slowed recently, but public company financings kept up a brisk pace with follow-on public offerings for Allakos and Alpine, private placements for Ventyx and Syros, and Albireo’s royalty deal. In restructuring updates, Biogen raised $592m in a real estate deal and Acerus is assessing options.

Private Company Edition: Acelyrin will use its latest funding for Phase III development of izokibep in inflammatory diseases. Also, ArsenalBio raised $220m to take its programmable cell therapies into the clinic and RayzeBio’s $160m series D round will fund clinical trials for its radiopharmaceuticals. 

Biopharma stock prices overall are trending down again, but standout firms are raising cash, including the first company to price an IPO over $100m since May, Third Harmonic. Also, Sarepta and Alnylam launched large note offerings, totaling $1bn and $900m, respectively.

Shuttle Pharmaceuticals and PaxMedica launch two small initial public offerings in the US as the market awaits a significant IPO. Also, Assertio closed a $70m follow-on offering, Codiak restructures and cuts jobs, and Vilya emerges with $50m in series A venture capital. 

Private Company Edition: Westlake Village BioPartners’ latest launch 3T Biosciences also licensed a second TCR platform from Stanford University. In other recent financings, Senda raised a $123m series C round, Orna revealed a $221m series B and CPRIT funded several cancer drug developers.

Public Company Edition: Third Harmonic hopes to double its money, raising up to $150m. Also, Halozyme priced a $625m note sale to retire debt and repurchase shares, while Viridian raised $270m in an offering after positive early data, and Clarus cut jobs while Endo finalized a restructuring plan.

Restructuring Updates: Homology implemented modest job cuts as it ended a gene therapy trial, while ProQR revealed its second round of layoffs this year and Synthetic Biologics shifted focus to oncolytic virus pipeline. Also, Bolt, MacroGenics and others deprioritized programs in their Q2 updates.

Good news in the biopharma industry and the US economy gave public drug developers the boost they needed to raise cash, including Karuna’s $750m offering. Private company financings slowed during the second week of August, but Prellis and Vector BioPharma raised venture capital.

Private Company Edition: Sironax completed a $200m series B round while IDRx launched with $122m and OriCell raised $120m in series C funds, joining end-of-July $100m-plus fundraiser Carmot Therapeutics, which closed a $160m series D financing. 

Public Company Edition: MAIA launches a $10m initial public offering, the first in the US since May, but NewAmsterdam opts for the SPAC route to the stock market. Also, Legend raises $350m in a follow-on offering, Iveric obtains access to $250m in debt and Otonomy cuts costs after a Phase II failure.

Private Company Edition: The amount of venture capital raised by biopharma firms fell but individual companies grabbed a lot of cash, making for a remarkable Q2 relative to pre-pandemic times. Recent Q3 rounds includes Frontera’s $160m series B. Also, Oxford Science Enterprises added €250m to its fund.

Public Company Edition: William Blair analysts note that stock prices are rising due to a Q2 boost in dealmaking after a lull in Q1. Nevertheless, layoffs and portfolio prioritizations are ongoing, including at X4 Pharmaceuticals, but others have raised cash following good news, like Revolution Medicines.