Start-Ups & SMEs

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. 

With a hub-and-spoke model, Replay has ambitious plans to solve multiple problems in genetic medicine and to disrupt the current AAV gene therapy model.

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.

Venture capital firm Medicxi has chosen Emmanuel Hanon to lead the company, hiring two more ex-GSK veterans to create what they hope is a ‘dream team’ in vaccines.

Private Company Edition: As venture capital funding continues at a robust pace relative to public company financings, Knopp Biosciences and Population Health Partners launched Areteia with enough cash to fund Phase III asthma trials and Qiming revealed new VC funds totaling $2.5bn and $700m.

The year to date has been a depressing period for initial public offerings, especially in Europe, but the Madrid-based epigenetics specialist is evaluating whether to head west and list in the US.

ARCH closed a $3bn VC fund to end the month of June while in the same week six public biopharma firms said they are cutting jobs. Even so, some publicly traded companies have been able to launch sizeable offerings, including a $450m note sale by Cytokinetics and Xenon’s $250m follow-on. 

ARCH Venture Partners brought in $2.975bn for its latest fund to give additional long-term investors a place at the table as the VC firm creates, builds and supports new early-stage biotechnology start-ups. 

The company’s lipid nanoparticle technology can deliver mRNA, gene editing and other cargoes to multiple cell and organ types. ReCode aims to expand its pipeline beyond lung diseases.

The UK biotech looks to have reached the end of the road, despite some encouraging signs from its microbiome-based pipeline.

Private Company Edition: While the tough state of financing for publicly traded drug developers continues, venture capital firms and private biopharma companies revealed billions of dollars in new VC funds and start-up financings, including $100m-plus mega-rounds for Tessa, Alladapt and ImCheck.

New fund will include some later-stage investments in portfolio companies, in recognition of the currently tough environment for privately held biotechs.