Biopharma financings reached $70.09 billion in the first half of 2024, a 129% increase from the $30.57 billion raised in the first half of 2023. At more than $70 billion, this year's financings are already approaching the full-year total of $70.97 billion for 2023. June saw $7.57 billion in total financings, a decrease from $9.15 billion in May.

Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd. announced a AU$70 million (US$46.69 million) institutional placement, and as part of that capital raise, radiopharma company Lantheus Holdings, Inc., has agreed to make an initial equity investment of AU$7.5 million.

Suzhou, China-headquartered Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd. has filed plans for a confidential IPO to the U.S. SEC for a potential dual listing on both the U.S. and Hong Kong stock exchanges. News of the U.S. IPO came just a few days after Ascentage drew a $75 million equity investment from Osaka, Japan-headquartered Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. with the issuance of about 24.3 million shares at a purchase price of HK$24.09 (US$3.08) per share.

Opthea Ltd. announced it plans to raise up to AU$227.3 million (US$150 million) to extend its cash runway through the data readout for its two phase III pivotal trials of sozinibercept (OPT-302) in wet age-related macular degeneration.

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery firm Quantumpharm Inc., also known as Xtalpi, began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange June 13, listing under a new special technology listing track that lured it away from an IPO in the U.S.

Fledgling biotech Ternarx Pty Ltd. has emerged from stealth mode and is the first of its kind in Australia to develop targeted protein degrader technology to destroy disease-causing proteins that cannot be targeted by conventional drugs. The Melbourne-based company will initially develop targeted protein degraders against currently undrugged transcription factors in cancers with significant unmet need, starting with neuroblastoma and prostate cancer.