Initial public offerings are the lifeblood of the biotech industry. Stock listings give young companies access to the vast amount of cash necessary to advance their drugs through clinical development, and their venture backers a crucial opportunity to earn a return and form new biotechs.
At the start of the last decade, the IPO markets weren’t receptive to biotech companies. But by 2013, public investment was pouring into the industry, drawn by scientific advances and boosted by the newfound interest of a broader range of investors.
Ever since, biotechs and their backers have ridden a multi-year boom. Many young drugmakers, including those still years from human trials, have gone public at valuations never thought possible in the 2000s. Records have been made, and broken, several times over. Last year, a new high water mark was set during the deadliest pandemic in a century.
But a lucrative IPO doesn’t mean the company will thrive. Which biotechs create value over time, and which fail? What types of companies are generating the best returns? Who are their top investors? READ MORE
By Ben Fidler
Source: biopharmadive.com
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
