In 2019, the cancer sector fell to the top of round a financing, and the IPO market continued to heat up

Recently, the famous Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) released its investment and financing report for the whole year of 2019 According to the annual investment and financing report entitled "healthcare investments & exits", the financing of venture capital institutions in the United States focusing on health care reached $10.7 billion in 2019, a record for the third consecutive year In the field of biomedicine, the IPO market is extremely hot In the early stage of investment, technology platform companies replace oncology companies and get the most capital investment This in-depth report also summarizes the investment and financing trends of biomedicine, medical devices, diagnostic / R & D tools and Healthtech, and looks forward to the investment and financing environment in 2020 In 2019, in the field of biomedicine, the total amount of round a financing of platform company took the place of oncology company for the first time and topped the list Platform companies are usually early companies that conduct preclinical research, and they have not yet established major research projects On the one hand, the total number of financing rounds a of oncology companies decreased by 46% compared with 2018, on the other hand, it also showed investors' interest in emerging technology platforms Top indications (left) and company (right) of biomedical round a financing (picture source: reference [2]) The top 10 a rounds listed in the SVB report include multiple platform companies Among them, the technology platform of maze therapeutics aims to scan the natural gene variation in human body, find the gene variation for disease prevention and develop innovative therapies based on these gene functions It is also one of the "biotech companies" in 2019 Arcenalbio is a start-up company integrating CRISPR genome editing technology, large-scale high-throughput target discovery, synthetic biology, and machine learning technology to develop innovative immunotherapy Passage Bio uses gene therapy techniques based on AAV from the University of Pennsylvania to treat rare diseases Elevatebio is also a biotech company focused on cell and gene therapy Most of the technologies of these platform companies are related to cell and gene therapy, which shows the industry's attention in this field from another perspective In addition, companies that develop innovative therapies for treating rare diseases have also won the favor of investors, and their round a financing amount ranks third in the field of biomedicine Aliz é pharma and mirum, which focus on the development of rare disease therapy, are among the top 10 a rounds of financing At the other end of the investment and financing cycle, platform companies and oncology companies still account for the highest valuation of the company, the mainstream of M & A and IPO SVB's report points out that in 2018-2019, 10 of the top 15 private biomedical companies were platform companies or oncology companies Six of them have gone public through IPO ▲ private biomedical company with the highest valuation (photo source: reference [2]) The platform companies include Moderna, kaleido Biosciences, which focuses on the development of mRNA therapy, kaleido Biosciences, which focuses on the development of innovative therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases based on immunology, gossamer bio, which focuses on the development of innovative therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, and beam therapeutics, which uses single base editing technology to treat genetic diseases Oncology companies include Lyell, which is committed to the development of a new generation of cell therapy Last year, the company cooperated with GSK for a period of five years, using its unique technology to improve the efficiency of cell therapy in GSK R & D pipeline Schr ö dinger therapeutics uses computing platforms to accelerate drug development and material design In addition to oncology drugs, the company's R & D pipeline also includes in-process therapies for various diseases such as metabolic diseases and autoimmune diseases In the field of diagnostic tests (DX tests), the number and amount of round a financing increased by more than 50% compared with 2018 Especially in the field of liquid biopsy, investors continue to invest in emerging liquid biopsy companies Three of the top 10 a rounds of investment and financing transactions in the field of diagnosis / R & D tools in 2019 are related to liquid biopsy companies Among them, thrive early detection is developing an early cancer screening test called cancerseek, which is based on the discovery of multiple cancer types based on genomic mutations in circulating tumor DNA and cancer related protein biomarkers in plasma ▲ list of round a financing in the field of diagnosis / R & D tools (picture source: reference [2]) Cradlegenomics, led by a former Illumina executive, aims to develop prenatal liquid biopsies that can detect genetic abnormalities in the fetus more comprehensively in the early stages of pregnancy Laboratory for advanced medicine (LAM) is dedicated to analyzing millions of blood samples through artificial intelligence (AI) to find DNA methylation characteristics that can predict the occurrence of cancer At present, the company is carrying out clinical trials in the United States and China to test the effect of its main liver cancer early screening liquid biopsy test This test has been recognized by FDA as a breakthrough medical device In 2019, the largest transaction statistics of all rounds of investment and financing in the field of diagnosis / R & D tools also show that investors attach great importance to the field of diagnosis and testing Grail, thrive early decision and freenome have all completed financing rounds with an amount of more than US $100 million These companies are focused on developing liquid biopsies for early screening of cancer ▲ top investment and financing transactions in the field of diagnosis / R & D tools in 2019 (picture source: reference [2]) In 2019, the total investment in health technology reached US $8.8 billion, double that of 2017 This field is the fastest growing part of the medical and health field This area includes companies that use advanced digital and computing technologies, change the way they provide health care, educate patients about health, provide new clinical trial designs, and use AI to assist in drug development For example, both Schr ö dinger and insitro are trying to apply computing science and machine learning technology to accelerate the development of new drugs ▲ financing list of health technology in 2019 (picture source: reference [2]) In 2019, biopharmaceutical companies performed strongly in the IPO market The best performing areas are still oncology and platform companies Rare disease companies and companies developing neurotherapy also performed well Among the bio pharmaceutical companies IPO in 2019, 20 companies have a year-end market value of more than $1 billion, far more than 12 in 2018 Among them, there are many Chinese biomedical companies, such as Borui biology, cornerstone pharmaceutical, Corning Jerry, kangxinuo biology, microchip biology, etc ▲ IPO companies with a market value of more than US $1 billion at the end of 2015-2019 (picture source: reference [2]) SVB's report predicts that investment in biomedicine could fall by 10% - 15% in 2020 Round a financing will remain stable, the number of IPO biomedical companies will be 28-35, and the M & A activities of private biomedical companies will increase In the field of diagnosis / R & D tools, the investment level will remain stable in 2020 SVB forecasts that there will be 7-10 IPOs in this field, of which 2-3 IPOs will have a market value of more than US $1 billion At the same time, some diagnostic testing and diagnostic analysis companies will be acquired, and companies focusing on the application of AI and machine learning to develop R & D tools are also the targets of M & A, a biomedical company Investment in health technology will continue to increase in 2020, and SVB expects more health technology companies, especially those providing alternative care, to be successful IPO companies in 2020 After the record of investment and financing of medical and health industry in 2018, although the capital market in 2019 did not break the record of 2018, it still maintained a strong momentum The innovative technology platform brought by breakthrough scientific research and the expansion of digital technology applied in the field of medical and health are the reasons that cannot be ignored At the same time, we look forward to the help of capital to transform innovative technology into therapies and products that really affect people's health and improve the health level and quality of life of patients reference material: