Public Company Edition: Mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations may be heating up, but in addition to the Surrozen and Tango SPAC deals Recursion and Biomea launched initial public offerings. Also, Organon sells $5.6bn worth of notes to fund spinout from Merck & Co.
Surrozen Inc. is raising $212m in 2021 as it prepares to enter the clinic in 2022, going public through a merger with the special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) Consonance-HFW Acquisition Corp. Surrozen, which is focused on tissue repair and regeneration through selective activation of the Wnt pathway, will garner $92m held in trust by the SPAC when the merger closes and raise $120m from a concurrent private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing.
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Merck’s immuno-oncology blockbuster was the world’s best-selling drugs by revenues for the second year in a row, with an almost $12bn lead over its closest rival, Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 drug Ozempic.
Private Company Edition: ARCH raised more than $3bn for its eighth fund, Frazier added $630m to its public fund that also can back crossover rounds, DCVC’s third biotech fund totaled $400m and Asabys raised €180m ($200m) for its second fund. Also, Aktis closed a $175m series B round.
BridgeBio spun out oncology assets in May to focus on rare diseases and now it has sliced off a few rare disease candidates for GondolaBio. Also, Avidity and Kymera closed follow-on offerings that grossed $345.1m and $225m, respectively, and Vandria extended its series A round to $30.7m.
Restructuring Edition: Lykos recruited a J&J veteran to help its slimmed-down staff resubmit its MDMA-based PTSD therapy. Also, Lexicon cut its field force by 50%, or 75 jobs; Viracta cut its solid tumor program and 23% of its workforce; and Boundless Bio streamlined with moderate job cuts.
Private Company Edition: ARCH raised more than $3bn for its eighth fund, Frazier added $630m to its public fund that also can back crossover rounds, DCVC’s third biotech fund totaled $400m and Asabys raised €180m ($200m) for its second fund. Also, Aktis closed a $175m series B round.
The German group is spinning off from Eckert & Ziegler and listing in Frankfurt, though a leap to the NASDAQ will likely follow once it has more data on a lymphoma theranostic.
MBX, Zenas and Bicara delivered positive returns in their first days of trading, but that has not always translated to good long-term results for drug developers that launched US IPOs this year.
