Biotech boomar i USA

Jänkarnas investeringsvilja i biotech når nya höjder. Financial Times talar om en boom för branschen.

US biotech fundraising boom ends 2-year deal drought

Drug developers raised $6bn in January, helped by a rebound in merger activity

Kyverna Therapeutics, which is developing therapies to treat autoimmune diseases, raised $319mn in an IPO last week © Vanja Savic

Fotnot. Kyverna är ett Reg Med bolag som nyligen fick godkännande av FDA för sin CAR T-Cell metod att bota patienter med Multipel Skleros (MS). Bloggen uppmärksammade det här.

Biotech companies are rushing to raise money in US equity markets at the fastest rate since the peak of the mid-pandemic market boom. 

Drug developers raised $6.2bn in equity capital markets in January, according to data from Jefferies. That marked the largest total since February 2021, the same month that the most popular tracker of biotech stocks hit its all-time high. 

 The funding surge marks a sharp turnaround after a two-year deal drought that forced many companies to cut jobs and shelve projects to save costs, and forced some out of business. “There’s been a noticeable, dramatic improvement in sentiment among investors,” said Rahul Chaudhary, head of healthcare equity capital markets at Leerink Partners. 

 Fundraising has been encouraged by a rebound in stock prices, expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon start cutting interest rates, and a boom in mergers and acquisitions activity in the sector. 

The closely followed SPDR S&P Biotech ETF tumbled almost two-thirds from its 2021 high, weighed down by rising interest rates and a backlash to pandemic-era over-optimism about new drugs. But the ETF has rebounded about 40 per cent since late October as investors bet that interest rates had peaked. Jesse Mark, head of equity capital markets at Jefferies, said the most notable shift was an increase in “opportunistic” deals from companies whose fundraising was not linked to encouraging drug trial data or other scientific milestones. “In two years of challenging markets, most companies were relying on catalysts to raise capital,” said Mark. Now, he added, “broader investor interest created a window for opportunistic issuance”

The bulk of the recent fundraising, $5.6bn, was raised by already listed companies, but initial public offerings have also been picking up pace, and the strong performance of recent deals was expected to encourage a further increase. “There’s a good backlog of biotechs who didn’t go public over the past year or so who are sharpening their pencils again,” said Yasin Keshvargar, a capital markets partner at Davis Polk, the law firm. 

Shares in US-based CG Oncology jumped 96 per cent to close at $37.17 on their first day of trading in late January, while Arrivent Biopharma raised $175mn in an initial public offering during the same week. Its share price has risen just over 5 per cent since listing. 

Kyverna Therapeutics, which is developing therapies to treat autoimmune diseases, provided the latest sign of investor appetite when it raised $319mn in an IPO last week. Kyverna raised its target price range, sold shares above the top of the increased target, and then its stock jumped a further 36 per cent on its first day of trading.

American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy visar på intresset för Reg Med. 

Min kommentar
Well,well,well,...jänkarna satsar stort as usual.Närliggande företag som stödjer forskningen kommer strax dras med i denna glädjeyra. Instrumenteringsföretag med vass teknik kommer hamna under luppen när investerarna breddar horisonten.

                                              Mvh the99