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Update Therapeutics | Q3 2024

State of the Landscape

This is the third update paper of 2024, in which we outline the investment landscape and activity in Therapeutics over Q3. Here, we focus on capital raisings, M&A activity and strategic alliances made across European biotech companies. We also highlight two interesting deals made over past three months.

Therapeutics deal volume and average size less than in Q3 2023

The number of VC deals is similar compared to the same quarter in 2023 (64 versus 61 deals, Table 1), while the deal sizes in Q3 2024 were higher (1.747 versus 961 for the ±50 deals that have been disclosed in both quarters).

The disclosed investments coming from private equity, equity offerings, and debt financing are less than half of capital invested compared to Q3 2023. This quarter’s private debt financing in particular sees almost $5B less worth in deals.

Early-stage median tickets were just 1/3rd of the amount of the previous quarter ($7.17M vs $2.29M). The only significant increase in VC investments were recorded in advanced opportunities, with stage median ticket sizes increasing from $14.23M to $24.69 for start-ups, $22.08 to $29.00 for growth companies, and from $8M to $33,17M for later stage companies (Figure 1).

Table 1 Overview of biotech landscape activity Q3 2024 versus Q3 2023
Table 1: Overview of biotech landscape activity Q3 2024 versus Q3 2023 ($M).

Green circle = positive change, yellow circle = invariable change, red circle = negative change

M&A has intensified compared to Q3 2023 (62 versus 54), with a particular increase in minority acquisitions. The 12 disclosed deals and the capital invested however, accounted for less than 25% of last year’s quarter. Compared to the same quarter in 2023, the number of strategic alliances dropped (60 vs 74), while the number of partnerships roughly remained the same and reported deal values increased with 60%.

Figure 1: Box plot of deals across development stages, with median highlighted
Figure 1: Box plot of deals across development stages, with median highlighted

Central nervous system, oncology and cardiovascular diseases remain the top-3 areas that attract financing and deals

Over the course of this year, there have been many transactions involving more than one asset. Most assets in Q3’s transactions were in the fields of the usual CNS, oncology, and cardiovascular diseases (Figure 2). In comparison, there has been a significant relative increase in dermatology, infectious diseases, and gastrointestinal diseases compared to previous quarter.

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

Highlights

logo Vandria

Vandria Raises USD 30.7M in Series A Financing 21/08/24

Vandria SA, a company at the vanguard of mitochondrial therapeutics developing first-in-class small molecule mitophagy inducers, announced the second closing of its Series A financing bringing the final amount raised to date to $30.7M (CHF28.3M). Hevolution Foundation and Dolby Family Ventures joined the lead founding venture investor ND Capital.

Vandria is developing first-in-class small molecule mitophagy inducers against a novel target to rejuvenate cells and treat age-related and chronic diseases. Hevolution Foundation is focused on investing in innovative science to support healthy aging. Dolby Family Ventures, in life sciences, invests in early-stage precision neuroscience and platform companies. In association with the financing, Jens Eckstein, Investment Partner at Hevolution Foundation, will join Vandria’s board of directors.

logo Vignette Bio

Vignette Bio enters into Licensing Agreement with EpimAb Biotherapeutics 03/09/24

Vignette Bio Inc, a company focusing on innovative therapies to address immunology and inflammation associated diseases and EpimAb Biotherapeutics Inc. (“EpimAb” or “EpimAb Biotherapeutics”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development of multi-specific antibodies for diseases with high unmet need, today announced that EpimAb and Vignette have entered into a license agreement for EpimAb’s BCMA-targeting T-cell engager (TCE) EMB-06.

Under this agreement, EpimAb will grant Vignette the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize EMB-06 outside of Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), while EpimAb shall retain the rights to EMB-06 in Greater China. EpimAb will receive total upfront considerations of $60M in cash and equity of Vignette, and will be eligible to receive up to $575M development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus royalties on net sales. “EpimAb is excited to enter into this partnership with Vignette on EMB-06, which is well positioned to realize the potential of EMB-06,” said Dr. Chengbin Wu, CEO and founder of EpimAb.

“EMB-06 is the first candidate developed with our proprietary T-cell engager platform and has shown promising clinical activity when evaluated in patients with multiple myeloma,” said Michael Rome, managing director at Foresite Capital and lead investor of Vignette. “We look forward to evaluating the potential of EMB-06 in autoimmune diseases. Emerging clinical data using B-cell depletion in autoimmune diseases has shown compelling results. EMB-06 is a promising clinical asset and we look forward to building a leading company focused on T-cell engagers for autoimmune diseases.”

EMB-06 is the first TCE developed within EpimAb’s T-cell engager platform, which combines EpimAb’s proprietary FIT-Ig bispecific platform and CD3 binder panel, and EpimAb’s in-house discovery and antibody engineering expertise. This allows EpimAb to quickly generate and screen a suite of engagers in the discovery stage for diseases of interest, and advance TCE candidates that could provide the optimal efficacy and safety profile into the pre-IND and clinical stages.

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.

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Siebe Warnars