The Hail Mary pass by Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. – shares of which have dwindled severely since Jan. 3 – foreseen by some on Wall Street, came in the form of a $130 million financing and the merger with Tyme Technologies Inc., bringing in-house pipeline assets as well as net cash in a deal that, after accounting for wind-down and transaction expenses, is worth about $60 million.
European biotechnology firms engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutics raised up to $2.15 billion in disclosed equity transactions during the second quarter, a drop of 36% on the same period of 2021. The closure of the IPO window was a major factor in the decline, but the completion of two sizeable special purpose acquisition company deals made up some of the shortfall. Listed firms raised slightly more in Q2 2022 than they did in the same period last year. Venture capital, although the single biggest source of equity funding during the quarter, was also down on the same period last year.
Blueprint Medicines Corp. CFO Mike Landsittel called his firm’s potential $1.25 billion financing deals with Sixth Street and Royalty Pharma “once in a lifetime” arrangements that came at the end of a competitive process in a formidable cash environment.
Mirobio Ltd. is poised to take two checkpoint agonists into the clinic in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, after closing a $97 million series B round. The most advanced program, MB-272, is an agonist of the B and T lymphocyte attenuator receptor that relays inhibitory signals to suppress the immune response. Mirobio says activating it has a “far reaching” regulatory effect, restoring self-tolerance across several major autoimmune diseases, including lupus.
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