LONDON – Europe’s latest antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist, Emergence Therapeutics AG, will be going head to head with pioneer Seagen Inc.’s approved ADC, Padcev, after raising €87 million (US$97.9 million) in a series A round.

Odyssey Therapeutics Inc. launched with a whopping $218 million series A round, the year’s second-largest, to fuel work by almost 100 employees recruited in the past few months, mostly from big pharma firms.

Biopharmas raising money in public or private financings, including: Aditxt, Bavarian Nordic, Context, Mei, Metis.

Financings ramped up dramatically in 2015 with $68 billion collected, but the amount does not touch biopharma investment in the last two years. The industry has raised $113 billion in 2021, down from the $134.5 billion full year 2020 total, but more than every five-year combination total from the years 2000 to 2014. It is an increase of 65% over 2015, 200% over 2016, 118% over 2017, 68% over 2018 and 95% over 2019. Both IPOs ($23.7 billion) and venture capital rounds ($37.8 billion) have hit all-time records this year. But will the onslaught of money continue for the industry?

Biopharmas raising money in public or private financings, including: Bellicum, Benevolentai, Bioplus, Cyrus, Longeveron, Odyssey, Trince.

Biopharmas raising money in public or private financings, including: Bone, Celyad Oncology, Clarus, Esperion, Link Health, Petros, Psyence, Scynexis.

Tune Therapeutics Inc. launched with $40 million in initial financing and plans to pursue both rare and complex disease indications with a series of epigenetic editors that employ CRISPR-Cas9 DNA recognition to modulate gene expression in a targeted fashion, without introducing potentially problematic DNA strand breaks or changes to the genetic code.

Biopharmas raising money in public or private financings, including: Abionyx, Acepodia, Aviadobio, Biofrontera, Coda, Context, Immunogen, MEI, Pacira, Qualigen, Sotio, Tetra.