Health Guard Biotechnology Inc. raised ¥294 million (US$43 million) in an IPO on the SME-focused Beijing Stock Exchange, with the funds going to push the development of its HPV vaccines.
While the U.S. is in an IPO drought, going public remains the only lifeline for many small life sciences companies facing a decade of development, R&D costs of $1 billion or more, and a hefty risk of failure, Susan Washer, former CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corp., testified in a March 9 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets.
Fresh off an end-of-year IPO, Coya Therapeutics Inc. is gearing up for clinical testing with its lead Treg-enhancing biologic in neurodegenerative disease, aiming to build on a wealth of academic-generated data highlighting the potential of Treg therapy to attack the neuroinflammation underlying diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
Emerging biopharma company Mineralys Therapeutics Inc. priced a $192 million upsized IPO, the biggest so far this year, following positive top-line phase II trial results it announced for its lead hypertension candidate lorundrostat in November last year.
South Korea’s GI Innovation Inc. announced its IPO on the Kosdaq market with plans to raise up to $34 million in March 2023. Funds raised from the IPO will go toward phase I/II clinical trials of immunotherapy agent GI-101 in the U.S. and Korea, and a phase I trial of allergy treatment GI-301 (also known as YH-35324) in Korea.
It’s been a tough year for raising biotech money, according to the new U.K. Biotech Financing Report, but there are bright spots in an otherwise dark period. What happened last year in the U.K. basically mirrored what happened with global financings as IPOs are significantly down while venture capital rounds stood strong.
Coming off a tough year for raising money, Cadrenal Therapeutics Inc. is leading the charge into a new year by completing 2023’s first U.S. IPO. The company closed its IPO of 1.4 million shares at $5 each for $7 million. The stock (NASDAQ:CVKD) began trading Jan. 20 and closed 9.37% downward on Jan. 25 at $2.90 per share.
Leveraging a computational platform designed to exploit the full potential of a widely studied pharma target has proved successful in attracting venture investors in the last few years to Structure Therapeutics Inc. The company now is giving the public markets a go, aiming to raise up to $100 million in what marks the first biopharma U.S. IPO filing for 2023.
The $60.8 billion collected by biopharma companies throughout 2022 is a sharp drop from each of the two prior years, down by 48.6% from 2021 and 54.8% from 2020. Each were standout years by any measure and a direct result of the investment fervor for the industry brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. That exuberance diminished in the last year as investors tightened their grips due to economic uncertainties.
Baili Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has raised ¥990.47 million (US$146 million) on the Shanghai STAR Market. Its shares opened Jan. 6 at ¥28.75 apiece, surging over 30% its first trading day, and closing at ¥38.40 on Jan.9.