Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #39
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/

Axial partners with great founders and inventors. We invest in early-stage life sciences companies often when they are no more than an idea. We are fanatical about helping the rare inventor who is compelled to build their own enduring business. If you or someone you know has a great idea or company in life sciences, Axial would be excited to get to know you and possibly invest in your vision and company . We are excited to be in business with you — email us at info@axialvc.com

Happy holidays.

Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #39 — December 19, 2020 — December 24, 2020

Financings

Number of deals: 4 & Total capital invested: $134.3M

- Coagulo Medical Technologies raised $6.5M from 20/20 HealthCare Partners, Sands Capital Ventures among others to develop products that detect and measure the effects of anticoagulants in whole blood.

- ONL Therapeutics raised $46.9M led by BIos Equity Partners to develop new medicines as photoreceptor protective agents to treat patients with retinal disease. ONL is targeting the FAS apoptotic pathway.

- Peptilogics raised $35.4M led by Presight Capital to use its computational drug development platform for antibiotics focusing on multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

- Provivi raised $45.5M led by Vivo Capital to develop biopesticides for agriculture, commercial, household products, and public health pest management. Based on technology from the Arnold Lab at Caltech, the company manufactures carbene/nitrene transferase enzymes that activate diazo and azide compounds to generate iron-carbenoids and iron-nitrenoids that are used to produce the pheromones Provivi is commercializing.

Exits

Number of exits: 2 & Total exit value: Over $1B

- Inhibikase Therapeutics went public raising $18M to develop new medicines targeting kinases for Parkinson’s Disease and other neurodegenerative diseases — https://sec.report/Document/0001104659-20-085909/

- Jacobio Pharmaceuticals raised ~$174M in an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to develop small molecule drugs that bind allosteric sites. The company is focused in China with their lead program targeting SHP-2 — https://endpts.com/months-after-striking-shp2-deal-with-abbvie-jacobio-pulls-in-174m-from-hong-kong-ipo/

Deals

Number of deals: 7 & Total deal value: Over $6B

- Agios Pharmaceuticals is selling its oncology business including its approved AML drug, Tibsovo, to Servier Pharmaceuticals for $1.8M in cash and $200M in milestone payments for the glioma drug candidate, vorasidenib — https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/agios-offloads-oncology-unit-to-servier-1-8b-deal-zeroes-genetically-defined-disease

- Merck entered in a collaborating and licensing agreement with Janux Therapeutics in a deal worth up to ~$500M per target (for 2 targets) in upfront/milestone payments to Janux along with royalties to develop new T-cell engager immunotherapies relying on Janux’s Tumor Activated T Cell Engager (TRACTr) platform — https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/janux-pairs-up-merck-for-a-1b-plus-t-cell-engager-deal

- Nektar Therapeutics sold their royalties on Adynovate (for Hemophilia A) and Movantik (for opioid-induced constipation) to Healthcare Royalty Management for $150M — https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nektar-therapeutics-announces-agreement-with-healthcare-royalty-to-sell-adynovate-and-movantik-royalties-for-150-million-301197350.html

- Peptidream announced a research collaboration with Amolyt Pharma to use the former’s peptide design platform to test growth hormone receptor antagonist (GHRA) for acromegaly - https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/12/08/2141298/0/en/Amolyt-Pharma-Announces-Research-Collaboration-with-PeptiDream.html

- Regenxbio sold a portion of its royalty rights on Zolgensma, an AAV gene therapy approved to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), for $200M to Healthcare Royalty Management (HRM). Once 1.3x and 1.5x of the $200M is paid back to HRM by November 7, 2024 or afterwards, respectively, the royalties revert back to Regenxbio — https://endpts.com/riding-on-rosy-estimates-of-zolgensma-sales-regenxbio-sells-part-of-its-royalty-for-200m/

- Sosei Heptares announced a deal with GSK worth up to $481M ($44M upfront) to develop G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) agonists for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and related conditions. The agreement gives GSK global rights to a portfolio of GPR35 agonists discovered by Sosei — https://www.bioworld.com/articles/501607-sosei-heptares-gsk-ink-481m-deal-tackling-gpcr-target-for-gi-disorders?v=preview

- Skyhawk Therapeutics announced a deal worth up to $2.2B ($40M in an upfront payment) with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develop small molecules to target splicing — https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201222005032/en/Skyhawk-and-Vertex-Establish-a-Strategic-Collaboration-to-Discover-and-Develop-Novel-Small-Molecules-that-Modulate-RNA-Splicing-for-Serious-Diseases

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