Top of FormMed-tech financings in March totaled $1.79 billion. Although a decline from February’s total, the cumulative value for the first three months of the year reached $6.02 billion, an increase from $4.69 billion during the same period the previous year.
Boundless Bio Inc. got a lukewarm welcome on Nasdaq after pricing its IPO of 6.25 million shares at the midpoint price of $16 per share, raking in about $100 million in gross proceeds to advance its pipeline of ecDNA-driven drugs targeting oncogene-amplified tumors.
The med-tech financing landscape in 2024 has shown remarkable improvement over last year, with $4.62 billion raised in the initial two months, an increase of 176.62% from the $1.67 billion raised during the same period in 2023.
“The market stinks,” Brian Johnson, a partner and vice chair of Wilmerhale’s corporate practice group, told a U.S. SEC advisory committee Feb. 27, as he painted a gloomy picture of last year’s IPO landscape in the U.S. While the scene was a little brighter than in 2022, a few key indicators could be worrisome, especially the median offering size, which is predictive of the strength of the IPO market, Johnson said
Most categories of med-tech financings peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the highest values seen in 2020-2021. While public/other and private financings have successfully rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the aggregate financings for 2023 hit an unprecedented low according to BioWorld’s records.
Curvebeam AI Ltd. made its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:CVB) after raising AU$25 million (US$16.175 million) in an initial public offering that will allow the company to market its flagship Hirise weight-bearing CT scan solution globally.
Brainaurora Medical Technology Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong to develop its digital therapeutics for the treatment of cognitive impairment diseases. The company claims to be the first in China to launch a digital therapeutics (DTx) product for cognitive impairment, as well as the largest company in China in terms of revenue from the commercialization of cognitive impairment DTx products in 2022.
Adicon Holdings Ltd. raised HK$409 million (US$52 million) in an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock market. Its shares opened at HK$12.32, jumped 12% and closed at HK$13.8 on the first trading day. Hangzhou, China-based Adicon is among the top three independent clinical laboratory (ICL) service providers in China by total revenues. It offers testing services to hospitals and health check centres through a network of 33 self-operated laboratories across China.
Gaush Meditech Ltd. raised HK$672 million (US$86.4 million) on a Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing. The company plans to use 38.2% of the funds to improve its research and development capability and speed up the commercialization of its patents in two years.
Transition ultrasound startup QT Imaging Inc. is poised to go public via a merger with Gigcapital5 Inc., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal that puts the equity value of the combination at $151 million. The combined company, QT Imaging Holdings Inc. will be traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol QTI.