Skip to content

Update Therapeutics | Q2 2024

State of the Landscape

This is the second update paper of 2024, in which we outline the investment landscape and activity in Therapeutics over Q2. As we focus on capital raisings and M&A activity across European biotech companies, we also highlight two interesting deals made over past three months.

More deals but significantly less capital invested across the biotech sector in EU landscape in Q2

The second quarter of 2024 has seen an increase in total number of deals, both in terms of capital raisings (153 vs 123), M&A (58 vs 49), and strategic alliances (75 vs 74) (Table 1).

Considering the venture financing landscape specifically, there has been a decrease in terms of number of deals, and subsequent total capital invested across different development phases of the company.

While Q1 saw 85 (74 disclosed) venture financing deals with a total value of $1.384,6M, the second quarter saw 76 of these deals (69 disclosed), totaling $1.212M.

Yet, the median deal sizes for early stage funding rounds has superseded Q1 (Figure 1), with median seed financing of $5M compared to $3.9M, and $16,3M compared to $5,1M for startups. In contrast, growth/expansion and later stage funding has been less active this quarter.

Private equity investments have remained relatively stable (8 in Q2 vs 7 in Q1). Yet, equity offerings have increased significantly – a trend that is also seen across the Medtech, Diagnostics, and Digital Health spaces. The number of equity offerings has doubled this quarter (62 vs 31), the majority of which being private investments in public equity (PIPE) and secondary offerings. However, the total capital invested in public companies is nearly two times lower ($2.760M vs $5.008M) .

Table 1: Overview of biotech landscape activity Q2 2024
Table 1: Overview of biotech landscape activity Q2 2024
Figure 1: Box plot of deals across development stages, with median highlighted
Figure 1: Box plot of deals across development stages, with median highlighted

Oncology remains most active therapeutic area in terms of number of deals, followed by CNS and cardiovascular diseases

As expected, most of the deals in Q2 were in the fields of oncology, CNS and cardiovascular diseases (Figure 2). In comparison, there has been a significant relative increase in immunology, gastrointestinal diseases and metabolic diseases.

Figure 2: Cumulative investment activity across therapeutic areas in 2024.
Figure 2: Cumulative investment activity across therapeutic areas in 2024.

Highlights

logo Limula

May 21th, 2024: Limula Raises $6.8M in Seed Financing

Limula, a life science tools company, recently announced that it has raised CHF6.2M ($6.8 million) to take their solution for automating cell therapy manufacturing to the next stage of development.

The oversubscribed seed round was led by LifeX Ventures, with participation from the founders (Verve Ventures, Zühlke Ventures, Oxford Seed Fund, Lichtsteiner Foundation, W.A. de Vigier Foundation), and a line-up of private individuals who have supported Limula’s vision from its inception. The company was founded in 2020 by Dr. Yann Pierson, Dr Luc Henry, and Dr. Thomas Eaton to deliver a disruptive approach to the ‘ex vivo’ manipulation of cells, based on a novel technology.

The trio witnessed that outdated manufacturing methods were a speed bump to the adoption of Cell and Gene Therapy products – like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells. Although combining breakthrough discoveries in genetic engineering and medicine led to a revolution in medicine, boosting the patients’ own cells to produce a dose in a laboratory still requires too many manual steps. Highly skilled labor and sterile infrastructures represent the majority of therapy costs, leading to a price tag of $500,000 or more per dose. As a result, these treatments are inaccessible for a majority of eligible patients.

To combat this, Limula developed a modular solution for on-demand and at-scale manufacturing of cell therapies in a single device. By combining the functionalities of a bioreactor and a centrifuge into one single closed vessel, Limula’s proprietary solution can handle a wide range of volumes and cell numbers, removing transfer steps and therefore limiting stress, losses, and potential contamination. With a potential for scalability, it can be used by cell therapy providers in their transition from pre-clinical evaluation to clinical trials, and later commercial scale manufacturing of clinical-grade cell products.

Luc Henry, co-founder and CEO of Limula, said: “Our team is driven by the ambitious goal of developing tools that are based on a fundamentally novel way of manipulating cells outside of the body. Our technology supports manufacturing workflows that are impossible to automate with existing tools. We believe automation is the only route to scalability and digital traceability. These two aspects are keys unlocking the full potential of Cell and Gene Therapy, making them accessible to the many, not just the few.”

Limula’s founders built a high performing multidisciplinary team, most recently joined by domain experts Olivier Waridel, former CEO of Cytiva-owned Biosafe, Caroline Boudousquié, former Head of Process Development at the Center for experimental therapeutics (CTE) of the University Hospital in Lausanne, and Maria Elena Grisostolo, former VP Operations at Lunaphore. After completing an initial proof of concept, the company launched a program to provide selected industry and academic partners access to the innovative platform ahead of its commercial launch. Aiming to broaden the scope of applications, Limula has signed partnerships with several research centres including San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy – a globally recognized centre of excellence for research and clinical translation of cell and gene therapy.

The solution developed by Limula is an enabling tool for a rapidly growing market. The potential of Cell and Gene Therapies to save the lives of millions of patients has generated significant interest and investments globally, leading to a significant pipeline and several recent approvals by health authorities. Both industrial and academic players are now eager to adopt next-generation automated and scalable solutions with the shared goal to significantly increase market reach and broaden accessibility.

logo Synox

April 22th 2024: SynOx Therapeutics Raises $75M in Series B Financing

SynOx Therapeutics Ltd, the late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, recently announced the close of a $75M Series B financing. The financing was co-led by Forbion, HealthCap, and new investor Bioqube Ventures.

The proceeds will be used to generate registrational Phase 3 clinical and CMC data for emactuzumab, SynOx’s potentially best-in-class CSF-1(R) inhibiting monoclonal antibody (mAb) for the treatment of Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumour (TGCT).

TGCT is a type of tumor that affects the soft tissue lining of joints and tendons, and is a highly debilitating, chronic disease which often impacts large, important joints such as the knee, hip and ankle – impacting patients throughout their lives. Quality of life is significantly reduced by a significant loss of function of the affected joints, pain, stiffness, and limiting range of motion. Although most patients receive surgical intervention, more than 50% of patients with diffuse disease experience tumor recurrence within three years of surgery.

Emactuzumab is a novel, next-generation CSF-1R mAb with a potentially best-in-class profile.  In earlier clinical work in TGCT[2], emactuzumab demonstrated substantial clinical activity with an objective response rate (ORR) of 71%, rapid and robust tumor reduction, a long duration of effect, and significant improvements in functional ability. Importantly, these studies also indicated that emactuzumab has a good tolerance and manageable safety profile. SynOx is initiating a Phase 3 trial (TANGENT) to assess the efficacy and safety of emactuzumab in patients with localized and diffuse TGCT.

What does the Venture Finance team at FFUND do?

FFUND’s Venture Finance team helps building and strengthening companies’ propositions to raise capital in an investment round. We do this by offering a number of services: analyzing the companies’ performance through assessment of key indicators, designing the data-room, performing market analyses, company valuations and composing the business plan and teaser deck for investors. On top of that, the team leverages its network of investors to receive feedback on your proposition while serving as a warm introduction.

Previous
Next
About the author
Picture of Siebe Warnars

Siebe Warnars