It seems increasingly likely that at least some of Congress's capital formation bills will soon become law, and that those laws will bode well for private biotechs by creating new fundraising pathways.
With Phase IIb data for antibiotic delafloxacin expected by the end of the year and a Phase III trial slated to start in 2012, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals Inc. moved to bolster its balance sheet by raising up to $80 million in an initial public offering.
It seems to me that an increasing number of start-ups have been boot-strapping their way through preclinical without venture capital lately. I have no quantitative data to back this up. But it’s a feeling I had earlier this year, too, as we reported on some big non-VC start-up rounds, like Ascletis Inc.’s $100 million raised largely from high net worth investors in China, and Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s $27 million Series B round raised in $1 million chunks from private individuals. We even made this subject the topic of BioWorld’s BIO 2011 panel. The trend appears to be continuing. Avaxia Biologics...
If H.R. 1070 is the capital formation bill likely to have the most immediate impact on biotech by providing an IPO alternative for small companies, then H.R. 2930 – which would let private firms raise up to $2 million through crowd-funding – might have the most long-term impact by helping start-ups bridge the valley of death.
EUSA Pharma Inc.'s FDA approval of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) drug Erwinaze (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi) means the privately held specialty pharma firm may now be poised for an exit.
Attention cash-strapped private biotechs: Whether you're struggling to find a bridge across the valley of death or trapped in a windowless venture portfolio, don't give up hope just yet, because four bills making their way through Congress could revolutionize your options for fundraising.
The biotech industry has long known it’s getting harder and harder for a small company to go public. As John Craighead, managing director of investor relations and business development for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said during a recent conference, about two-thirds of the biotech initial public offerings (IPO) in 2000 were preclinical. Today however, even clinical-stage firms struggle to get public. With the exception of last week’s pricing by Clovis Oncology Inc., every biotech IPO this year has taken a haircut on price. Small biotechs are not the only ones suffering. At an SEC forum on small company capital formation...
EUSA Pharma Inc.'s FDA approval of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) drug Erwinaze (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi) means the privately held specialty pharma firm may now be poised for an exit.
Of the four Congressional bills aimed at providing small companies with new fundraising options, H.R. 1070 – which would allow private firms to raise up to $50 million publicly and trade their shares without the expense of becoming a reporting company – is likely to have the most immediate impact on biotech.
In last week’s issue of BioWorld Insight, our esteemed Washington editor Mari Serebrov wrote an article titled, “Shorter Exclusivity Could Carry a Hefty Price Tag.” In it, she quoted sources who are very concerned that reducing the current 12-year exclusivity for innovator biologics to seven years, as the president and a number of lawmakers have proposed, would be bad news for patients, payers and drug makers. In the article, Mary Webster, a patent attorney with Nixon Peabody, said: "If you can't corner your market and recoup your costs, are you going to do it?" And suddenly I had a flashback...
