PERTH, Australia – Australian stem cell company Mesoblast Ltd. completed a capital raising of AU$138 million (US$90 million) to scale up manufacturing of its allogeneic cell therapy, remestemcel-L, to treat COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
BEIJING – Legend Biotech Corp., headquartered in Somerset, N.J., filed with the U.S. SEC last week plans to raise up to $100 million to advance its BCMA-targeting CAR T candidate, LCAR-B38M, by listing on Nasdaq. Legend confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the regulators in March.
Biopharmas in Asia-Pacific raising money in public or private financings, including: Abivax, Apeiron, Greenlight, Hemogenyx, Modulus Discovery, Peptidream, Travecta.
Due to launch in the second half of this year, Rallybio Inc.’s phase I/II study testing RLYB-211 for prevention of fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) will begin with experiments in men, said Steve Uden, one of the company’s three founders. “The good news is, we can confirm the safety and the pharmacology of this concept in male volunteers before having to start a clinical trial in pregnant mothers,” he told BioWorld.
With Moderna Inc. leading the charge with its work on a COVID-19 vaccine, the market is feeling its oats as companies go after money sitting on the sidelines. One of the biggest financings to price this week is San Diego-based Turning Point Therapeutics Inc.’s underwritten public offering of common stock at $60 per share for gross proceeds expected at about $325 million.
Representing the highest amount ever raised by a public biopharma company on a U.S. exchange, Moderna Inc. priced a $1.34 billion follow-on offering to help fund worldwide manufacturing and distribution of its mRNA-1273 vaccine for COVID-19.