Caris Life Sciences Inc. raised $830 million in a capital growth round led by Sixth Street Partners, the latest show of private investors’ zeal for backing precision medicine ventures. The infusion, which includes $235 million in equity financing, will be used for continued commercial expansion and to advance its liquid biopsy platform. T.R. Price Associates Inc., Silver Lake, Fidelity Management & Research Co. LLC were significant contributors in the round.
Business development among biopharmaceutical companies working on therapeutics for cancer indications has been brisk this year, with 32% of the 654 deals recorded to date by BioWorld involving cancer indications. However public companies in the area haven’t gained much investor enthusiasm, with the BioWorld Cancer index dropping over 18% year-to-date, with 6% of the loss in valuation taking place this month.
While acknowledging the net health benefit over standard of care in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients, CAR T-cell therapies Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) and ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) represent low long-term value at their current pricing levels, according to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in a final evidence report released May 11.