In November, the biopharma industry raised $5.65 billion in total financings. While down from $11.6 billion tracked by BioWorld in October, overall financings are tracking ahead of last year. Biopharma funding has maintained an average of $6.1 billion per month in 2023, surpassing the $5.07 billion monthly average throughout 2022.

Regenerative medicine company Mesoblast Ltd. plans to raise AU$97 million (US$64.5 million) to conduct additional phase III registration trials for its allogeneic stem cell treatment for steroid-refractory acute graft-vs.-host disease and for chronic back pain, as required by the U.S. FDA.

Serial biotech-founding venture fund Flagship Pioneering Inc., most noted for launching Moderna Inc. in 2012, is crossing into the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and setting up a regional office in Singapore, a move that comes on the heels of its entry into the U.K. earlier this year.

What’s it going to take for Australia’s biotech industry to be more self-sufficient? Although Australia is far away from the rest of the world, no one is an island when it comes to biotechnology, Ausbiotech CEO Lorraine Chiroiu said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held in Brisbane Nov. 1-3. Investors gathered to riff about what they were looking for in Australian biotech investments and what needs to change for the sector to be sustainable. All agreed that the science in Australia is top-notch but that the ecosystem needs more investment to be competitive.

Israel’s finance ministry has increased the amount of funding high-tech companies with a short runway, including biotechs, can apply for under a fast-track scheme run by independent, publicly funded agency The Israel Innovation Authority, in response to the country’s war against Hamas.

In October, the biopharma industry secured $11.6 billion in financings, marking the highest monthly amount since June 2021 when value totaled $12.3 billion. Biopharma financings have averaged $6.1 billion per month so far in 2023, an increase from the $5.07 billion monthly average for all of 2022.

Fledgling biotechnology company Automera has launched in Singapore with $16 million in series A funding to develop its autophagy-targeting chimera small molecules (AUTACs) platform technology. Automera co-founder and chief technology officer Loong Wang told BioWorld that he and his business partner, Taiyang Zhang, decided to move into the biotechnology space in 2021.