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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 #54 - April 3, 2021 - April 9, 2021
Financings
Number of deals: 14 & Total capital invested: $498M
- Canvas Medical raised $17M co-led by IA Ventures and Inspired Capital Management to build a new EMR focused on RCM and population health.
- Carta Healthcare raised $17.3M led by Storm Ventures to grow their clinical trial data registry and services business.
- Firefly Health raised $40M led by a16z to grow their tech-enabled primary care business. Huge need here.
- Guardian Agriculture raised $10.5M led by Leaps by Bayer to develop drones for crop protection.
- Inbox Health raised $15M led by Commerce Ventures to develop a product for automated and personalized patient billing.
- Inscripta raised $150M led by Fidelity to scale their gene editing tools business. Incredible company.
- Maxwellia raised £3.2M led by Praetura Ventures to build a platform to help patients buy some prescription drugs over-the-counter.
- Medxoom raised $8M led by Castellan Group to build a health benefits product.
- Nucleix raised $55M led by RA Capital Management to use their methylation detection technology, EpiCheck, for early-stage detection of lung cancer.
- Orchid raised $4.5M from Refactor Capital, Village Global, Day One Ventures among others to build a DTC product for IVF screening.
- Oxford Endovascular raised $10M from Vulpes Investment Management and Additio Investment Group to develop medical devices for neurovascular disease with a focus on brain aneurysms.
- Pendulum Therapeutics raised $54M led by Meritech Capital to commercialize their probiotic for type 2 diabetics and scale their DTC microbiome platform. Congrats Colleen.
- Ventus Therapeutics raised $100M led by RA Capital Management to use their structure-based design platform to target the innate immune system.
- Zedsen raised $12M from a group of angel investors to develop a consumer diagnostics product around blood draws.
Exits
Number of exits: 6 & Total exit value: Over $7B
- Agilon Health filed for a $1.1B IPO to scale their primary care network focused on seniors - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001831097/000119312521108147/d10763ds1a.htm
- Better Therapeutics announced they are going public through a SPAC valuing the company at $187M. The company develops digital therapeutics for cardiometabolic disease with their lead candidate, BT-001, in pivotal trials for type 2 diabetes - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/digital-diabetes-treatment-developer-better-therapeutics-to-go-public-spac-deal
- Impel NeuroPharma filed for a $75M IPO to use its Precision Olfactory Delivery (POD) technology to develop new medicines for CNS diseases - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001445499/000119312521105083/d121817ds1.htm
- LumiraDx announced that they are taking the company public through a SPAC and value the business at $5B. The company has PoC COVID-19 diagnostic tests with their antigen test authorized by the FDA - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/diagnostics-company-lumiradx-to-go-public-via-merger-with-spac-in-deal-valued-at-about-5-billion-2021-04-07
- Rain Therapeutics filed for an IPO to raise $100M to develop their pipeline of cancer drugs targeting MDM2 and RAD52 - https://sec.report/Document/0001193125-21-105078/
- Reneo Pharmaceuticals also filed for a $100M IPO develop their lead asset, REN001, an agonist for mitochondrial activity across several diseases - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001637715/000119312521087741/d63585ds1.htm
Deals
Number of deals: 2 & Total deal value: Over $2B
- Artios Pharma executed a partnership with Novartis in a $1.3B deal to develop drugs targeting the DNA damage response (DDR) to combine with Novartis’ radioligand therapies - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/novartis-taps-artios-for-targets-to-enhance-radioligand-drugs
- Cidara Therapeutics announced a deal with Janssen Pharmaceuticals to develop conjugate therapies targeting viruses with a focus on influenza with the deal worth up to $780M- https://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/cidara-inks-up-to-780-million-deal-for-antiviral-conjugates
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 -