Financing

Public Company Edition: It took 256 days for 2021 to surpass the 2020 record of 86 biopharma initial public offerings in the US in one year. Also, Procaps raised $115m ahead of its SPAC merger and aTyr and bluebird raised $75m each.

France’s Provepharm Life Solutions, which finds new uses for known mature molecules, in particular antidotes and surgical dyes, by improving their efficacy and maximizing their therapeutic potential, has fresh funds to expand its portfolio.

Private Company Edition: Recent biopharma venture capital financings add up to $1.7bn, including a $135m crossover round for HilleVax after spinning out of Takeda in July to advance a norovirus vaccine, Skyhawk’s $133m in fresh funding and Obsidian’s $115m series B round.

The Jennifer Doudna-backed startup got a billion-dollar valuation with VC rounds totaling $195m. CEO Trevor Martin talked with Scrip about Mammoth’s ultra-small CRISPR system technology.

One initial public offering and six private funding deals add a total of $357m into the biotech funding pot in China as multiple new ventures look to progress pipeline assets and build capabilities.

The company intends to use the series B cash to bring the first of its pan-amyloid removal (PAR) therapies into the clinic, while also advancing a diagnostic tool for systemic amyloidosis.

The company, which has treatments in the clinic for CLN2 Batten disease and APOE4-associated Alzheimer’s disease, is developing AAV-mediated gene therapies designed for safer outcomes.

Emerging Company Profile: Scotland-based EnteroBiotix will use proceeds from a successful series A financing to advance its nascent pipeline of novel high-diversity microbial therapeutics, enhancing the gut microbiome and eventually targeting multiple indications.

Beneath booming healthcare financing and deal-making in Asia is a constant flow of ready capital, but there are also challenges that may present hurdles to Hong Kong overtaking Nasdaq as the premier site for listings in the sector, a recent summit heard.

Renaissance Capital expects an initial public offering surge in September; Biomedtracker data show financings for COVID-19 programs fell from Q1 to Q2; Revelation will merge with a special purpose acquisition corporation; Ascendis netted $379.3m in a follow-on offering; and Disc Medicine raised $90m in venture capital.

With a CD8-targeting IL-2 mutein as its lead program, the start-up is developing cis-targeted immunotherapies that selectively target two molecules on the same immune cell for improved efficacy and safety.

The failed muscle-adding antibody could offer a superior profile in obesity by reducing body fat composition while increasing lean mass, the firm believes.