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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
Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #23 - August 29, 2020 - September 4, 2020
Financings
Number of deals: 15 & Total capital invested: $601M
- Adlai Nortye raised $100M with Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting and Yingke co-leading the round to grow the company’s pipeline of IO drugs focused on China.
- Biofourmis raised $100M led by the second Softbank Vision Fund to develop analytical tools to monitor COVID-19 patients - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497378-biofourmis-raises-100m-to-expand-digital-care-footprint
- Climax Foods raised $7.5M mainly led by At One Ventures to apply machine learning to plant-based ingredients to create new food products. Way to go Oliver.
- Hazel Health raised $33.5M co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and Owl Ventures to develop telehealth services focused on K-12 students.
- Healthlane raised $2.4M led by Digital Horizon to develop software to track appointments in medical facilities and connect with doctors for informed decisions focused on Africa.
- Lumen Bioscience raised $16M with WestRiver Management and Bioeconomy Capital co-leading the round to scale their spirulina platform to produce new biologics.
- Miracor Medical raised €24M from Earlybird, Yonghua among others to develop new devices for cardiac diseases.
- NeuroPace raised $33M led by Accelmed Partners to commercialize their deep brain stimulation device for seizures.
- Pharmapacks raised $40M from The Emerson Group, Sawaya Capital Partners among others to scale their e-commerce platform for OTC drugs and nutritional products.
- PhotoniCare raised $5.2M led by i2E Management Company to develop a next-generation otoscope to non-invasively monitor ear infections. Always great to see new products to “digitize” common tools in the doctor’s arsenal.
- PicnicHealth raised $25M led by Felicis to scale their platform to allow patients to control and selectively share their medical data.
- Pyramid Biosciences raised $28M from Adage Capital Management among others to develop new medicines targeting tropomyosin receptor kinases for dermatology and oncology.
- Rain Therapeutics raised $63M with Boxer Capital leading the round to develop new small molecule therapeutics for oncology patients with a focus on targeting MDM2 - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497362-rain-therapeutics-raises-63m-to-advance-newly-licensed-liposarcoma-asset
- SHINE Medical Technologies raised $80M led by Fidelity to produce medical isotopes for use as tracers and cancer treatments.
- Waterstone Pharmaceuticals raised 420M CNY o-led by Guotou Juli and SDIC Juli Investment Management to develop new drugs, mainly ADCs, for the treatment of liver and gastrointestinal diseases.
Exits
Number of exits: 5 & Total exit value: Over $4B
- Aimmune Therapeutics was acquired by Nestlé valuing the company at $2.6B to gain access to its approved drug for peanut allergies - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497196-as-fda-crunch-bars-dbv-nestle-gobbles-aimmune-for-26b
- Akcea Therapeutics was acquired by the company it spit out of, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, valuing the company at $500M to bring back their two approved products and pipeline of antisense medicines into their fold - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497204-ionis-to-acquire-the-remainder-of-its-spinout-akcea
- Athira Pharma filed for a $100M IPO to bring their HGF/MET activator drugs to a pivotal trial for Alzheimer’s - https://sec.report/Document/0001564590-20-041369/
- Hisbiskus Biopharma was acquired by Lodo Therapeutics to bring on the company’s proteasome and immunoproteasome inhibitors - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497379-lodo-blooms-as-it-acquires-hibiskus
- Virios Therapeutics filed for a $34M IPO to develop antiviral therapies to treat diseases associated with a viral-triggered abnormal immune response, such as fibromyalgia, a widespread chronic pain disorder including severe symptoms of fatigue that can last for three months or longer - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1818844/000110465920099726/tm2025286-3_s1.htm
Deals
Number of deals: 2 & Total deal value: ~$800M
- Jounce Therapeutics announced a deal with Gilead to license their JTX-1811 monoclonal antibody designed to deplete immunosuppressive tumor-infiltrating T regulatory (TITR) cells for a $85M upfront payments, $35M equity investment, and $685M in milestone payments- https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497272-time-is-titr-jounces-licensing-deal-with-gilead-could-total-805m
- Polyphor announced a deal with Shanghai Focus Pharmaceutical to license balixafortide for commercialization in China. The drug is in phase III trials and targets CXCR4 for HER2-negative locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Polyphor received $15M in an upfront payment with development milestones up to $148M along with tiered percentage royalties, ranging from low-double-digits to midteens, on product sales in China - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/497192-polyphor-lands-15m-up-front-in-back-loaded-china-deal-for-balixafortide
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 -