Med-tech companies are facing a new reality of high interest rates, inflation, bank failures, and geopolitical turmoil that are impacting financing and M&A opportunities. To secure finance and attract partnership deals they must keep their product simple, focus on proof of concept and ensure that it has quality, delegates at the LSX World Congress in London heard during a panel presentation.
Pattern Bioscience Inc. reeled in $28.7 million in a series C financing led by Illumina Ventures and Omnimed Capital. The money will be used to complete development of its rapid phenotypic test platform for infectious diseases, conduct clinical validation studies and submit the platform and Pattern’s initial test, for pneumonia, for U.S. FDA review.
Avertix Medical Inc. signed a definitive merger agreement with Bios Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal that will take the company public on the Nasdaq. The deal will establish the combined entity, which will continue under the Avertix name and trade as AVRT, with an estimated enterprise value of $195 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Buoyed by the progress it has made with its lead integrin therapy for moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, MORF-057, which significantly reduced disease activity in a phase IIa trial, Morphic Therapeutic Inc. is raising $240 million in a public offering to further advance the candidate through the clinic.
The IPO market in Europe is firmly shut and not a single company went public in the first quarter of 2023. The impact of this is trickling down to limit access to venture capital for biotechs.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) equity fund will no longer be managed internally by the European Commission (EC) after September. Alterdomus Management Co. SA, a Luxembourg-based fund manager, will make the final decisions on which life science companies to invest in. The aim is to optimize how the EU’s main tool for driving innovation and economic growth in Europe operates.