Medline Inc. returned to the public markets with a blockbuster IPO of $6.26 billion, reportedly this year’s largest IPO globally. The upsized offering of more than 216 million shares at $29 per share will allow the medical supply giant to devote the entirety of the proceeds from its initially proposed 179 million shares toward repayment of debt.
Freenome Holdings Inc. reported it is going public via a special purpose acquisition company. The company said it expects to raise $330 million, which it plans to use for the 2026 launch of its blood-based screening tests for multiple cancers. Backed by an affiliate of Perceptive Advisors - Perceptive Capital Solutions Corp. (PCSP) – and joined by RA Capital, the arrangement includes a commitment of $240 million in equity investments plus about $90 million more held by the SPAC’s trust fund. Other notable investors, including ADAR1 Capital, Bain Capital Life Sciences, and Farallon Capital Management have signed on to participate in the deal.
Abbott Laboratories made plans to enter the cancer screening market with its reported acquisition of Exact Sciences Corp. The deal will pay Exact Sciences shareholders $105 per share in cash, a nearly 50% premium to Exact’s unaffected share price on Nov. 19. That represents a total equity value of approximately $21 billion and an estimated enterprise value of $23 billion.
If Freenome Holdings Inc.’s $254 million funding round is a sign, the capital markets for med-tech may finally be thawing. The cancer diagnostics company’s latest cash infusion brings its total funds raised to date to more than $1.3 billion. Freenome co-founder and Chief Product Officer Riley Ennis told BioWorld the company’s success in raising cash in a challenging market was attributable to the “perfect storm of huge unmet need and the opportunity that we have, given the treatment advancements.”
Freenome Inc. has acquired U.K.-based immunodiagnostics developer Oncimmune Ltd. for £13 million (US$16 million), in a move that bolsters Freenome’s frontline early cancer detection efforts. While Freenome has been largely focused on getting the U.S. FDA’s nod for its colorectal cancer test, Oncimmune already has a CE-IVD marked EarlyCDT Lung blood test, an autoantibody platform and an R&D pipeline of over seven cancer detection signals.
Bostongene LLC topped up its coffers with $150 million series B round, pushing its valuation over $1 billion and into unicorn territory. The med-tech industry’s latest mystical equine can whinny all the way to the bank with two other newcomers to the elite corral: Mindmaze SA and Freenome Inc., which jumped the $1 billion valuation hurdle in March and February, respectively.
Freenome Holdings Inc. has landed $290 million from Basel, Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG to advance its multiomics platform for early cancer detection. The multimillion financing deal brings San Francisco-based Freenome’s total funding to more than $1.1 billion, securing its status as a unicorn company. It comes on the heels of a series D raise in December 2021, which netted Freenome $300 million from investors including Perceptive Advisors and RA Capital Management.
DUBLIN – Liquid biopsy developer Freenome Inc. has – literally – capitalized on its recent proof-of-concept AI-Emerge colorectal cancer (CRC) screening study by raising $270 million in a series C round that will enable the South San Francisco firm to complete its ongoing Preempt CRC registration study and to file for pre-market approval from the FDA.
Liquid biopsy startup Freenome Inc., of South San Francisco, reeled in $160 million in a series B financing that was led by RA Capital Management and Polaris Partners. The funds are earmarked to advance Freenome's multiomics blood testing platform for early cancer detection and to grow its laboratory and software capabilities.