Financing

Plus, Roche talks about why it wants to partner with firms that have machine learning expertise as the BIO International Convention continues in Boston.

More than half of emerging biotech companies have less than two years of cash to fund operations, according to EY’s Beyond Borders report.

On the first day of the BIO International Convention, our reporters hear from industry leaders about tough financing, when to go public, and why ‘there shouldn't be 700 listed biotechs in the US.’

Private Company Edition: Former Merck R&D head Roger Perlmutter and his new team have accessed drug candidates in oncology and neurodegenerative diseases from three companies, along with new funding. Also, Carmot raised $150m in series E equity and BenchSci brought in $70m.

The CEO of Korean bioventure Kanaph Therapeutics, Byoung Chul Lee, talks to Scrip about the difficulties such companies are going through amid generally weak investor sentiment, as well as the company's own financing and R&D plans.

Private Company Edition: Two companies raised multiple hundreds of millions of dollars each helping to keep the number of $100m-plus venture capital mega-rounds on the rise in May. Also, Ascend raised $132.5m to make gene and cell therapies, and Nido emerged with $109m for neurological diseases.

ElevateBio closed a series D venture capital round and revealed a potentially multibillion-dollar deal between its Life Edit subsidiary and Novo Nordisk as demand for its cell and gene therapy capabilities grow.

ReNAgade Therapeutics came out of stealth mode with $300m to fund its proprietary technology for delivery of RNA medicines – including coding, editing and gene insertion modalities – beyond the liver.

X4 Pharma has shown that cutting back and focusing on a lead asset can work but mavorixafor’s first-in-class status and efficacy profile is not common.

Public Company Edition: Seven companies revealed $2.1bn worth of royalty financings in the first quarter of 2023 and the deals keep coming in Q2, with uniQure monetizing Hemgenix royalties for up to $400m. Also, Legend grossed $350m in a follow-on offering and Athenex is liquidating via bankruptcy. 

With excellent academic centers and a thriving start-up scene, Switzerland’s biotech scene has garnered significant interest in recent years. However, without being a priority for EU funds, the sector remains reliant on foreign cash and needs a funding push from within to boost success.

The proceeds from the series A will be used to progress Dualyx’s preclinical program DT-001, which targets "the highly attractive TNF receptor 2 (TNFR2), widely regarded as a master control switch in immune modulation."