Top biotechnology financing list released!

From the "prosperity madness" at the beginning of the year to the "capital winter" in the second half of the year, in 2021, the biotechnology industry has experienced a roller coaster year

However, the market may not be as bad as thought

Statistics of Biotech VC Financing Rounds

Source: Evaluate.

According to Evaluate Pharma, there were 216 rounds of financing ≥ $50 million last year, compared to 173 in 2020; 93 rounds of ≥ $100 million compared to 63 in 2020

But we should also note that the increase in the amount of financing in 2021 mainly occurred in the first quarter, after which VC financing gradually declined, and financing sentiment fell into a low point at the end of last year

Judging from the 2021 list of the top 10 private financing of biotechnology companies screened by Fierce Biotech, cell and gene therapy (CGT) is a hot spot for financing, and new crown vaccines and therapeutic products, and AI pharmaceuticals are also favored by capital

Among them, a biotechnology company from China, Aibo Bio, is the champion of private equity financing in 2021, with a total financing of more than 1.

In second place is ElevateBio, which develops transformative cell and gene therapies, and closed a $525 million Series C in March last year

New crown products are still the "darling" of capital

Abogen Biosciences

In 2021, Aibo Bio is undoubtedly one of the most popular innovative biopharmaceutical companies.

Aibo Bio has now established a rich product pipeline, covering the fields of infectious disease prevention and tumor immunity

Expro Bio is undoubtedly lucky, and successfully raised sufficient funds before the advent of the capital winter, laying the foundation for future recruitment, experimentation, clinical entry, and internationalization

Adagio Therapeutics

Adagio focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of differentiated products in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases

In April of this year, Adagio Therapeutics announced the latest clinical data of ADG20, which showed that ADG20 achieved the primary endpoint and was statistically significant in the pre-exposure and post-exposure prevention and treatment of the new coronavirus

Cell and gene therapy a new hot spot

ElevateBio

Founded in May 2019, ElevateBio focuses on immunotherapy, regenerative medicine and gene therapy, and is committed to building the next-generation cell and gene therapy BaseCamp platform, providing gene and cell therapy development companies with funding, R&D bases, and drug development and commercialization

ElevateBio CEO David Hallal calls it "the first fully integrated technology company focused on cell and gene therapy by delivering end-to-end capabilities that enable partners to gain a strategic market advantage

Laronde Therapeutics

Laronde is focused on developing circular RNA therapeutics

Sonoma Biotherapeutics

Sonoma Biotherapeutics is focused on the development of Treg cell therapies
.
In August 2021, Sonoma Biotherapeutics announced the completion of an oversubscribed Series B financing of $265 million
.
Proceeds from financing will be used to advance Sonoma's regulatory T cell (Treg) therapeutic platform and novel effector T cell (Teff) modulating biologics into the clinic to treat a variety of severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and to further invest and expand manufacturing operations , to support product offerings for initial clinical studies
.

Tumors, neurological diseases, and aging are key areas for new drug development

EQRx

EQRx is a company with a "me too" strategy.
Its original intention was to provide similar innovative drugs at a lower price and become a "disruptor"
.
In January 2021, EQRx announced that it had closed a $500 million Series B financing
.
In mid-December, the company announced that it had completed a business combination with CM Life Sciences III, a special purpose acquisition company focused on the life sciences, and the company's stock has begun trading on the Nasdaq Global Market
.

The EQRx R&D pipeline mainly comes from the introduction of innovative drugs made in China, including the PD-L1 antibody sugemalimab (co-developed with CStone Pharmaceuticals, which was approved for marketing in China in December), the EGFR inhibitor almonertinib (almonertinib has been approved in China) Approved for the market, authorized by Prosperity Pharmaceuticals), PD-1 antibody CS1003 (co-developed with CStone Pharmaceuticals, phase III clinical) and CDK4/inhibitor andlerociclib (co-developed with Jiahe Biotech, phase III clinical)
.

Neumora Therapeutics

In October 2021, Neumora Therapeutics came out of stealth mode with a $500 million Series A round on its debut
.
The company pioneered precision medicine for brain diseases through the integration of data science and neuroscience
.
Currently, Neumora has launched a portfolio of eight clinical, preclinical and discovery-stage projects resulting from internal discovery efforts, acquisitions of multiple private companies, and licensing agreements with Amgen
.

Sotio Biotech

Sotio Biotech raised 280 million euros ($315.
9 million) in December, making it one of the largest funding rounds ever for a European biotech company
.
The company has been established for more than 10 years and is a member of the Czech investment company PPF Group, developing a new generation of potent immunotherapies for cancer patients
.

The company said the financing will be used to expand and advance its clinical pipeline
.
Currently, Sotio's clinical pipeline includes the subcutaneously administered IL-15 superagonist SOT101, which is currently undergoing Phase II clinical trials
.
Three more projects will enter Phase I clinical testing this year, namely SOT201, an IL-15-based immunocytokine; BOXR1030, a GPC3-targeted CAR-T based on patented technology, designed to improve CAR-T therapy Efficacy in the tumor microenvironment; SOT102, a next-generation Claudin18.
2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)
.

Altos Labs

Altos Labs announced its official launch in January this year and received $3 billion in financing
.
But last year, an article in the MIT Technology Review, a well-known technology media, reported that it had raised at least $270 million in financing
.
Altos mainly researches biological reprogramming technology and is committed to extending human lifespan
.

The new company, which is already incorporated in the US and UK, will establish multiple research institutes in San Francisco, San Diego, Cambridge, the UK and Japan, and recruit a large number of scientists with high salaries, promising they can understand how cells age and how to reverse it.
A process to conduct unfettered research
.

Insilico Medicine

Insilico is committed to using artificial intelligence to advance the development of innovative therapeutics
.
Up to now, Insilicon has nominated 6 preclinical drug candidates discovered or designed by AI, including a preclinical drug candidate targeting the tumor immune target QPCTL in cooperation with Fosun Pharma
.
In addition, Insilicon's first internal self-developed pulmonary fibrosis project also successfully completed the Phase 0 micro-dose group human trial and entered the Phase I clinical trial stage
.

Conclusion

The pace of biopharma IPOs has already started to slow in 2021 and is likely to tighten further in 2022
.

Although both domestic and foreign biotech companies are now experiencing obvious fluctuations, the capital winter may not be over yet
.
However, as an innovation-driven industry, in the long run, there will always be innovations emerging, driving the industry to form new growth points, and spring will always come
.

Reference source:

1.
https:// https:// 2.
https://info.
evaluate.
com/rs/607-YGS-364/images/jn371-vantage-2021-review-report.
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