Start-Ups & SMEs

Big biopharma is struggling to find the next generation of cancer immunotherapies, but the sector’s smallest companies might just have the platforms of the future.

Adding Oxford to its roster will help Apollo widen its net for potential first-in-class therapies, and connects with the university’s ambition to build world-beating spin-outs.

Sepranolone may have progressed positively through a Phase IIa trial but its potential to reduce tics has failed to tempt any of the 20 or so potential partners that the Swedish biotech spoke to about a licensing deal.

Flush with cash, the controlling stakeholder of Novo Nordisk’s life sciences investment arm is increasing its financing of other biopharma innovators.

New modalities and potential best-in-class challengers have excited investors in 2024 to date, but companies whose drugs have underperformed on the market have been punished.

Private Company Edition: After its acquisition by an investor earlier this year, NGM Bio has raised a $122m series A round, adding to a recent surge in large venture capital financings. Also, Vanqua Bio disclosed $45m in new funding and Renalys completed a $38.4m series A.

Chairman Sir Nigel Rudd said re-registering as a private company is necessary to provide Destiny Pharma with a realistic chance of securing the capital required to progress XF-73 Nasal through clinical trials, without which “liquidation of the company is the most likely alternative.”

The venture capital firm announced a $3.6bn raise for Fund VIII and side funds, which it plans to invest across human health, AI and sustainability-focused companies.

The Munich-based firm looks to pioneer the novel iRhom2 mechanism to dial down inflammation while maintaining immune homeostasis.

In a major boost for the UK biotech sector, an impressive sum has been raised by Beacon Therapeutics to support its R&D activities in ophthalmic gene therapies.

The UK spin-out from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute has secured a significant series A financing to advance its novel antibody-drug conjugates which it believes offers a highly differentiated profile over standard payload classes.

Private Company Edition: June ended with Formation Bio’s $372m series D round and July began with Beacon’s $170m series B. Also, Curie.Bio raised a $380m fund, Freeflow Ventures emerged with $90m across multiple funds and EvolutionaryScale raised a $142m seed round.