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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@axialsprawl.com
Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #13 - June 20, 2020 - June 26, 2020
Financings
Number of deals: 25 & Total capital invested: $2.08B
- 3DBio raised $20M from Alexandria Venture Investments, BlueSeed Ventures, and others to build out their bioprinting capabilities to develop regenerative tissues.
- Agamon raised $3M led by MMC Ventures to develop an NLP product for medical reports to automate things like billing and patient follow ups.
- Artiva Biotherapeutics raised $78M co-led by 5AM Ventures, RA Capital, and venBio to develop allogeneic natural killer cell therapies - https://www.biocentury.com/article/305563
- AsclepiX Therapeutics raised $35M led by Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund using computational biology to identify potent peptide regulators of vascular homeostasis for the treatment of retinal and other important diseases with two phase 1/2 assets in DME and wet AMD.
- BrightInsight raised $40M led by Insight Partners to scale their digital health product for connected devices during clinical trials and medical device development.
- Calibrate raised $5.1M from Forerunner Ventures to build a telemedicine product to help people lose weight.
- Cedar raised $77M from a16z to scale their patient financial engagement product - https://news.crunchbase.com/news/cedar-closes-102m-series-c-led-by-andreessen-horowitz-to-improve-patient-financial-engagement/
- Cyclica raised $17M led by Drive Capital to use their computational platform for drug development to build a decentralized business model: their goal is to power 1000 trials in the next ~10 years.
- Deep01 raised $2.7M led by ASUSTek to build software to interpret CT brain scans - https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/22/taiwanese-startup-deep01-raises-2-7-million-for-its-ai-based-medical-imaging-software/
- DispatchHealth raised $135.8M from Optum Ventures to scale their in-home healthcare product.
- Engrail Therapeutics raised $32M from Nan Fung Life Sciences to develop a pipeline of new CNS medicines with its first asset, ENX-101, selectively modulating GABA-A - https://xconomy.com/san-diego/2020/06/18/engrail-therapeutics-launches-with-32m-to-develop-new-neuro-drugs/
- Enko raised $45M from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to use machine learning to discover new active chemical ingredients focused on agriculture - https://fortune.com/2020/06/26/enko-chem-ai-bill-gates-backed-agtech/
- ENTEROME raised $52.6M from SymBiosis and Takeda Pharmaceutical to develop new medicines targeting the microbiome-immune sytem axis.
- Foldax raised $20M led by MemorialCare Innovation Fund to design and build new heart valves.
- Indigo Ag raised $300M from Flagship Riverstone Holdings, and Alaska Permanent Fund to build their full-stack agtech business from discovery to supply chain - https://www.axios.com/indigo-ag-fundraising-series-f-8d1d0265-4f45-46ad-8feb-1747a09ec921.html
- optimize.health raised $3.5M from Bonfire Ventures to build a remote-patient monitoring product.
- Oscar raised $225M from Alphabet, General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, and others to grow their DTC health insurance company.
- Polares Medical raised $40M led by Longitude Capital to develop their transcatheter mitral valve hemi-replacement system to treat patients suffering from mitral regurgitation - https://www.pharmiweb.com/press-release/2020-06-25/polares-medical-closes-a-40m-financing-to-complete-pilot-clinical-studies
- Poseida Therapeutics raised $110M to develop CAR-T therapies with its first asset targeting BCMA for multiple myeloma. Poseida relies on their PiggyBac method to transform their cells - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/awaiting-ipo-poseida-therapeutics-nips-a-quick-110m-series-d
- Sana Biotechnology raised $700M from ARCH, Flagship, GV, and others to translate iPSC IP from Harvard to develop new off-the-shelf cell therapies.
- Simcha Therapeutics raised $25M from WuXi AppTec, Sequoia Capital China, and Connecticut Innovations to develop new cytokine therapies focusing on IL-18 in oncology - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/simcha-debuts-25m-to-advance-custom-built-il-18-for-cancer
- Somatus raised $64M led by Longitude Capital to grow their kidney care company; they’ve treated ~20K patients and focus on more personalized services.
- Surrozen raised $50M from The Column Grop, Horizons Ventures, and others to develop tissue-specific antibodies for liver disease and IBD.
- Tara Biosystems raised $10M from LifeForce Capital, Merieux Equity Partners, and OMX Ventures to develop their heart-on-a-chip technology for drug development. Heart disease is an incredibly treacherous place for any startup to enter - the later stage trials are large and expensive and showing non-inferiority is not easy. This is the core problem to solve in heart disease.
- Tatch raised $4.3M led by Spark Capital to commercialize a patch/mobile app product to track sleep and diagnose sleep disorders - https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/23/tatch-is-building-a-sensor-that-can-help-diagnose-sleep-disorders/
Exits
Number of exits: 2 & Total exit value: Over $1B
- Accolade filed to raise a $175M IPO to grow its healthcare benefits management business from over $100M - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1481646/000104746920003822/a2241931zs-1a.htm
- Relay Therapeutics registered to raise a $200M IPO to commercialize a pipeline of new medicines for solid tumors from its allosteric drug development - platform - https://medcitynews.com/2020/06/protein-motion-focused-relay-therapeutics-files-for-200m-ipo/
Deals
Number of deals: 7 & Total deal value: Over $1B
- AbbViestrictly up a deal with Sosei Heptares to develop drugs targeting 4 GPCRs. The deal has a $32M upfront payment with various milestones worth up to $377M - https://endpts.com/back-to-the-immunology-drawing-board-abbvie-inks-discovery-deal-with-old-allergan-partner/
- Gileadbought 49.9% of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics fro $275M with an agreement for a total buyout for another $315M with ~$1B in biobucks to get closer to Pionyr’s myeloid tuning technology to rebalance the tumor microenvironment to favor immune-activating myeloid cells over immune-suppressing myeloid cells - https://endpts.com/daniel-oday-snatches-another-i-o-company-buying-half-of-a-pioneers-biotech/
- Invitae is acquiring ArcherDx for ~$1.4B in cash and stock to build a comprehensive cancer genetics and precision oncology company - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/invitae-and-archerdx-to-create-a-global-leader-in-comprehensive-cancer-genetics-and-precision-oncology-301080846.html
- Mercklicensed two neurodegenerative drugs from Yumanity Therapeutics in a ~$500M biobucks deal - https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/yumanity-therapeutics-merck-deal/
- Sanofiannounced a $425M partnership ($300M in cash and $125M in equity investment) with Translate Bio to use their mRNA platform to design new vaccines - https://endpts.com/sanofi-bets-425m-cash-on-a-transformation-style-next-gen-vaccine-deal-as-the-big-pharma-team-makes-a-point/
- Sareptastruck up two deals to bolster their gene therapy toolkit: one with Codiak Biosciences ($72.M upfront) to use exosomes for gene therapy delivery and another with Selecta Biosciences for its immune tolerance technology to prevent neutralizing antibodies from forming after a gene therapy treatment - https://endpts.com/sarepta-expands-gene-therapy-toolkit-bets-72-5m-to-hitch-a-ride-on-codiaks-exosome-tech/
- uniQuresold off the rights of its phase 3 gene therapy for hemophilia B to CSL Behring for $450M with $1.6M in biobuck payments. The deal has CSL reimbursing uniQure for the remaining developmental costs and gives uniQure double-digit royalties - https://tools.eurolandir.com/tools/Pressreleases/GetPressRelease/?ID=3784776&lang=en-GB&companycode=nl-qure&v=
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 -