Private equity firm Keensight Capital acquired a majority stake in Bedfont Scientific Ltd. in a move that will allow the company to expand the use of its devices for breath analysis and monitoring worldwide. Although the value of the deal was undisclosed, Keensight typically invests in profitable companies generating revenues in the range of €10 million to €400 million.
Organox Ltd. raised $142 million in financing to accelerate the growth of its Metra platform that preserves and transport livers for transplantation. The funds will allow the company to strengthen its ability to support current customers, expand its customer base and enter new markets such as Canada and Australia, where it earned regulatory approvals within the last year, Steve Deitsch, CFO of Organox, told BioWorld.
As med-tech startups look to raise capital without diluting the valuation of their company, many may look to sell distribution rights in certain geographies to interested companies.
The med-tech sector maintained its momentum in the second quarter, with total financings climbing 16.5% to $7.47 billion, compared to $6.41 billion in Q1.
Baseimmune Ltd. has raised $11.3 million through a series A to accelerate the development of its deep learning AI technology for predicting future pathogen mutations to generate a series of longer-lasting, multistrain vaccines.
Gilde Healthcare Partners BV finally closed its Venture & Growth VI fund after raising €740 million (US$803 million) in commitments. The venture capital firm added €140 million to the €600 million unveiled earlier in the year due to strong interest from institutional investors.
The funding environment continues to be challenging for companies in the health care sector, and even more so for early-stage med-tech companies, delegates heard at the LSX Investival Showcase in London. Med-tech companies were told that they had to be lean, constantly work on building relationships with investors and not to give up because there is money out there for innovative technologies that can save people’s lives.
Royalty monetization is a financing tactic that is becoming increasingly popular during challenging times, and PTC Therapeutics Inc. is the latest firm to leverage a marketed drug to pay off debt and fuel its development pipeline. The South Plainfield, N.J.-based company agreed to sell up to $1.5 billion of its Evrysdi (risdiplam) royalty stream to Royalty Pharma plc, of New York. Evrysdi is a survival motor neuron 2 RNA splicing modifier approved by the U.S. FDA in 2020 to treat spinal muscular atrophy.
There are several pan-PIM kinase inhibitors in development for cancer indications, but startup Mysthera Therapeutics AG hopes to become the first biotech company to develop them in the autoimmune diseases space, having secured $3.5 million in seed capital from founding investor Forty51 Ventures.
Structure Therapeutics Inc.’s stock climbed 34.6% following a readout of what analysts call “competitive” and “exceptional” phase Ib data at 28 days of oral small-molecule glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist GSBR-1290 in healthy overweight or obese individuals. Shares (NASDAQ:GPCR) rose $12.95 to close Sept. 29 at $50.42. At the same time as the data readout, the San Francisco-based company agreed to a $300 million private placement with several large health care institutional and mutual fund investors, extending Structure’s runway through the end of 2026.
