Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #38
Tags: Venture Capital, Biotechnology, Investing, Healthcare, Medicine

Get these analyses to your inbox — https://axialfc.substack.com/ This is a newsletter for new financing events with some simple analysis. More well thought out work can be found at — https://axial.substack.com/

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Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #38 — December 12, 2020 — December 18, 2020

Financings

Number of deals: 15 & Total capital invested: ~$746M

- Better Dairy raised £1.6M led by Happiness Capital to develop dairy products from fermentation.

- CG Oncology raised $47M led by Kissei Pharmaceutical to develop oncolytic viruses to treat cancer.

- Diameter Health raised $18M led by Centene to grow their API-product offering enabling healthcare data interoperability.

- Enveda Biosciences raised $4.9M led by True Ventures to build a database of plant bioactive compounds and make new medicines from these natural products.

- H1 Insights raised $58M with IVP and Menlo Ventures co-leading the round to scale their healthcare and clinical trial platform focused on KOLs. Congrats Ariel.

- Innoskel raised ~$24M led by Jeito Capital to develop gene therapies for type 2 collagenopathies, a group of rare skeletal disorders that affect the structure of connective tissues.

- LocanaBio raised $100M led by Vida Ventures to develop their pipeline of RNA-targeting gene therapies for neurodegenerative, neuromuscular, and retinal diseases.

- MinervaX raised ~$57M from Sanofi Ventures, Adjuvant Capital, Novo, Wellington Partners among others to develop their recombinant-protein-based vaccine for group B streptococcus (GBS) through a phase 2 program as well as parallel surveillance studies to enable it to define correlates of protection against GBS in newly born infants.

- Neuron23 raised $113.5M led by Westlake Village BioPartners to develop new medicines targeting LRRK2 for Parkinson’s and TYK2 for neuroinflammation.

- Octave Bioscience raised $32M led by Northpond Ventures to grow their care management software product for patients with multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.

- Oscar raised $140M led by Tiger Global Management to scale their software-enabled health insurance product.

- SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals raised $100M co-led by ARCH Venture Partners and Lilly Asia Ventures to develop new medicines for CNS diseases focused in China.

- Vivace Therapeutics raised $30M from RA Capital Management, Boxer Capital, and Canaan Partners to develop new medicines targeting the Hippo-YAP pathway in oncology with a focus on the transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) family.

- Well Dot raised $26M from General Catalyst among others to grow their healthcare guide app.

- Workit Health raised $12M led by FirstMark Capital to grow their telemedicine product for substance abuse.

Exits

Number of exits: 4 & Total exit value: Over $42B

- 908 Devices filed for a $100M IPO to grow their mass spectrometry device business — https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1555279/000110465920135080/tm2032047-8_s1a.htm

- Alexion was acquired by AstraZeneca for $39B to build out their pipeline in rare diseases and around Complement. Wow.

- Cadent Therapeutics was acquired by Novartis for up to $770M ($210M upfront and the rest in milestones) for its neuroscience pipeline focused on treatment-resistant depression and schizophrenia — https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/novartis-snaps-up-neuro-partner-cadent-for-210m-upfront-promise-up-to-560m-more

- Prevail Therapeutics was acquired by Eli Lilly for up to $1.04B ($880M in cash and the rest in a CVR worth up to $160M) — https://www.bioworld.com/articles/501392-eli-lilly-acquiring-prevail-for-up-to-104b?v=preview

Deals

Number of deals: 4 & Total deal value: Over $1.8B

- Overland Pharmaceuticals announced two joint ventures (JV) with ADC Therapeutics and Allogene, respectively. For the former, ADC licensed exclusive development and commercialization rights to Lonca, ADCT-602, ADCT-601 and ADCT-901 for greater China and Singapore with milestones and royalties to Overland, which invested $50M into the JV. Overland Pharmaceuticals will have a 51% stake and ADC Therapeutics a 49% stake. For the latter, Allogene will license their AlloCAR-T cell therapies to Overland to focus on Asia targeting BCMA, CD70, FLT3, and DLL3. Overland is investing $117M in the Allogene JV with Allogene eligible to receive a milestone payment per product for each first regulatory approval in China, as well as tiered royalties on net sales — https://www.bioworld.com/articles/501390-overland-pharma-inks-two-jv-agreements-building-pipeline-for-asian-markets?v=preview

- Relay Therapeutics announced a licensing agreement with Genentech to develop RLY-1971, an inhibitor of SHP2. Genentech will assume development of RLY-1971 with the potential to expand into multiple combination studies including with Genentech’s investigational inhibitor of KRAS G12C, GDC-6036.Relay Therapeutics will receive $75M in an upfront payment and is eligible to receive $25M in additional near-term payments. Relay also has the right to opt in to a 50/50 US profit/cost share on RLY-1971. If Relay elects to opt in, then Relay will be eligible to receive 50 percent of profits from US sales and up to $410 million in additional ex-U.S. commercialization and sales-based milestone payments, as well as royalties on ex-US net sales. If Relay Therapeutics elects not to opt in, then Relay will be eligible to receive up to $695M in additional development, commercialization and sales-based milestones, as well as royalties on global net sales, anticipated to be in the low-to-mid-teens. Relay Therapeutics is retaining the right to combine RLY-1971 with its selective FGFR2 and mutant-selective PI3Kα programs — https://www.bioworld.com/articles/501313-relay-therapeutics-signs-deal-with-genentech-for-its-shp2-inhibitor?v=preview

- Surface Oncology executed a licensing deal with GSK for Surface’s IgG1 antibody targeting CD112R expressed on NK- and T-cells, SRF813 for $85M in an upfront payment, up to $730M in milestone payments, and tiered royalties on global net sales — https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/gsk-puts-up-to-815m-table-for-surface-oncology-s-antibody

- Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical entered into a licensing agreement with Mereo BioPharma to develop setrusumab, a monoclonal antibody in clinical development for osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Ultragenyx will have an exclusive license to develop and commercialize setrusumab in the US and rest of the world, excluding Europe where Mereo retains commercial rights. Ultragenyx will make an upfront payment of $50M to Mereo and will fund global development of the program until approval, and has agreed to pay a total of up to $254M upon achievement of certain clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones — https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/12/17/2147399/0/en/Ultragenyx-and-Mereo-BioPharma-Announce-Collaboration-and-License-Agreement-for-Setrusumab-in-Osteogenesis-Imperfecta.html

I used to play football a long time ago — I had some decent success mainly because of my teammates with some of them playing in the NFL. Every practice, every game was an existential fight. I’m not that athletic so every year some 6’4 monster would show up trying to take my spot. Similarly, all of these companies are fighting for their right to exist whether they raised $1M or $100M. Building a great business requires passion and focus. A really powerful and useful framework to lead groups of people and win was developed by Bill Walsh — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd_CnRkKOqA