DUBLIN – Last May, a quartet of Dutch biotech industry veterans gathered for a socially distanced outdoor meeting in a private garden in Leiden to discuss what could be done to prevent the present COVID-19 fiasco from ever occurring on such a scale again. A new startup, Leyden Laboratories BV, emerged from that conversation, and it has just raised €40 million (US$47.3 million) in a series A round to develop broad-spectrum, self-administered, intranasal antiviral drugs to prevent infection.
According to the BioWorld Cancer Financings Report, 2020 proved to be a record year in terms of capital raised by biopharmaceutical companies working on therapeutics for cancer indications.
DUBLIN – Step Pharma SAS closed a €35 million (US$41.5 million) series B round to move its first-in-class cytidine triphosphate synthase 1 inhibitor into clinical trials in patients with T-cell and B-cell malignancies.
HONG KONG – Bispecific antibody startup Epimab Biotherapeutics Inc. has completed a $120 million series C financing, bringing it closer to a potential IPO next year. The Shanghai-based company said the new funds would help it move EMB-01 into phase II testing this year.
While historical data suggest venture capital rounds will eventually dip below the peak years, biopharma financings completed in recent months indicate the dollars are continuing to climb in 2021. A maturing industry, the high potential of cell and gene therapy products, the advancing technologies of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as an eager financial community, are all responsible for the ever-increasing availability of private money.
Biopharmas in Asia-Pacific raising money in public or private financings, including: Beigene, Boston Immune Technologies and Therapeutics, Connect, I-Mab, Innoforce, Neoimmunetech, Noxopharm, Nyrada, Tavotek.
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