Juergen Eckhardt’s Post

Good status report on the Biotech investment landscape. Some interesting observations - Capital is returning and pharma sits on 1 trillion in cash that can be invested. Considering that pharma has mainly outsourced early discovery over the past decades many new assets and technologies are likely to be brought in - so the argument made in the article is that if assets align with the cash drivers such as those found in e.g. the weightloss drug/metabolic disease space as example, opportunities are clearly there. In addition, the fact that Flagship and Foresite can raise large new funds also show that the biotech sector remains interesting and relevant as an asset class. There is so much change and innovation in the tech sector in general right now, and biotech is also deeply affected. That creates opportunity. I’m biased - i hope to see cell-based approaches emerge successfully in the clinic as medicine is due for a makeover. And at Trailhead Biosystems we are focusing on attaining better control during scaling and differentiation of Cell products - one of the key elements identified in the article as the reason that CGTs (cell and gene therapies) have been lagging. #biotech #trailbio #biotechinvesting #ipsc #celltherapy #trailhead #futuremedicine #stemcells #investing #novonordisk #elililly #lilly

Despite public market struggles, #VentureCapital (VC) funding has remained robust for the #Biotech field. While #VC funding has declined since its peak in 2021, it remains well above pre-pandemic levels. Investors are currently focused on platform technologies such as #MachineLearning drug discovery, cell therapies, and gene therapies. Learn more about the recent biotech landscape in McKinsey & Company. 👇

Nature Biotechnology published a very interesting piece on the current state of biotechnology financing, which is A Tale of Two Worlds. The biotech industry is experiencing a stark divide. On one hand, companies with late-stage clinical assets and experienced leadership (aka teams with previous large exits) are attracting significant investments. These "haves" are benefiting from a robust M&A market and investor enthusiasm for sectors like obesity, neurology, and immunology (oncology investments still outweigh every other category). On the other hand, many early-stage companies are struggling to secure funding in a challenging environment. While overall venture funding is increasing, the focus has shifted towards later-stage opportunities. This has led to larger, fewer financing rounds, making it difficult for early-stage companies to compete (there are exceptions within few asset classes and technology platforms that command large early rounds). Venture needs to support companies for much longer in the current environment. However, there are signs of recovery, with IPO activity increasing and corporate venture capital stepping in to support early-stage innovation. The future of the biotech industry will likely be shaped by the ability of early-stage companies to navigate these challenges and secure the necessary funding to bring their innovations to market. #biotech #funding #therapeutics #oncology #immunology #technology #biotechnology #recovery #health https://lnkd.in/eAJqNzV5

The journal Nature Biotechnology from Springer Nature just published an insightful article about the biotech industry authored by Melanie Senior . It notes positive signs of an improving landscape from a financial point of view. After several years of reduced funding, there are upticks of cash from both the public and private venture capital (VC) markets. Biotech financing rounds are fewer in number, but the average funding round size in monetary terms has reached a new record in 2024. Of course, the investment flows are far from uniform across all therapeutic areas. Cancer programs attract by far the most VC funding at US$13.8 billion in total YTD, but neurology, endocrinology/metabolism, immunology, inflammation and autoimmune diseases are increasingly getting more funding attention. And AI start-ups are also still on the receiving end of significant amounts of investment. Early-stage pre-clinical innovators are the ones that struggle the most for VC funding, which is a change compared to 2019 when they attracted more such funds than late-stage clinical programs. On the other hand, some big pharma companies flush with cash whose lead revenue-generators are soon to lose patent protection now seek early-stage partners to fill their gaps. Read the full article here 👉 http://wch.ag/UzVOQ #innovation #biotech #WackerBiotech

McKinsey's article states that innovative platform technologies in the following three areas have continued to draw VC interest in 2022 and 2023:  ·      ML-enabled drug discovery ·      Cell Therapies ·      Gene and oligonucleotide therapies Though the article is from December 12, 2023, most of the data reported is from 2022. Interestingly, more than $15 billion was raised in VC funding for platform biotech in 2022 alone. Investors have been attracted to areas such as the integration of large omics data sets, investigation of regenerative medicines, and unlocking of large-scale genomic edits. #biotech #cellandgenetherapy #geneediting #proteomics #genomics #earlystageinvesting #earlystagestartups

🚀 Exciting news! DeepCure, a pioneer in AI-driven small molecule therapeutics, has secured $24.6M in Series A-1 funding led by IAG Capital Partners. 🌟 This investment will propel advancements in immunology, inflammation, and automation capabilities for drug discovery. 💼 With participation from existing investors, DeepCure has now raised over $72M. Read more: [Link to full article] https://lnkd.in/dFTd2sGW #DeepCure #AI #DrugDiscovery 🧪🔬

Exciting news in the longevity space! Rejuvenation Technologies Inc., a biotechnology company, announced yesterday a $10.6M seed financing round led by Khosla Ventures. Shanda Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Merchant Adventures, Longevitytech.fund, and Y Combinator also participated in the round. The company has also raised $4.6M in grant funding, bringing the total amount raised to $15.2M. Rejuvenation’s co-founders John Ramunas, PhD, CEO, and Glenn Markov, PhD, COO, have worked together for over 12 years, including at Stanford University where they completed their PhDs in the lab of Helen Blau on telomere extension and epigenetic reprogramming. Dan Chambers, thoracic transplant physician and lung fibrosis disease expert from The University of Queensland, will join the company as Chief Medical Officer.   The key role of telomeres and telomerase in cellular aging was recognized with the 2009 Nobel Prize. “There is an immense public interest in aging and in #mRNA due to mRNA-based COVID” vaccines, said Alexander A. Morgan, MD PhD, Partner, Khosla Ventures. Rejuvenation Technologies Inc. is working on developing mRNA-based therapies to address the mechanisms of #aging. Their primary focus is on reversing a key aging mechanism known as #telomere shortening. Telomeres are like biological clocks that shorten as we age, contributing to age-related diseases. Rejuvenation's lead candidate involves delivering optimized telomerase mRNA encapsulated in targeted lipid nanoparticles to reverse telomere shortening in the body. This work is essential because telomere shortening is a fundamental hallmark of aging and plays a role in various age-related problems, including chronic DNA damage, reduced mitochondrial function, cellular senescence, and more. Rejuvenation's technology has shown promise in preclinical models for conditions like liver fibrosis and lung failure, and they believe it could have a broad impact on aging-related diseases. Crucially, their method is made to work quickly, not stay in your body for too long, and be gentle on your immune system, so it doesn't cause problems like making your cells immortal or triggering strong immune reactions. https://lnkd.in/gNQU4s58 #longevity #healthspan #biotechnology #rejuvenation #startup

“It doesn’t feel good if you’re a small biotech trying to raise money, but things are going in the right direction,” says Allan Marchington. After heavy funding during the pandemic and a re-equilibration in 2022 and 2023, it is projected that 2024 is back on track. Biotech IPOs in 2024 remain rare, but sums raised in the first half of the year already surpass 2022 and 2023. Total biopharma venture funding is also likely to surpass 2019 and 2023 numbers. Generally, there are fewer but bigger rounds of financing in 2024. Approx. $90 million for only 132 rounds of funding compared to approx. $56 million for 292 rounds in 2019. Investors prefer late-stage programs, making it hard for early-stage companies to raise money. Currently, hot areas include antibody-drug conjugates and radioligand therapies, while cell and gene therapy companies are faring less well. “We expected to have figured out manufacturing and scalability by now, but we’re not there yet,” says Miquel Vila-Perelló, co-founder and CEO of gene therapy player SpliceBio. https://lnkd.in/gQKr7U8R

Asset-based biotechs—those that are developing more traditional assets for specific indications—accounted for the remaining third of VC funding in 2022. McKinsey analysis grouped asset-based companies according to their primary therapeutic area of focus or that of the lead asset. In 2022, immunology stood out as a clear area of heightened interest, capturing 23 percent of total asset-based company funding—a significant jump from previous years . Several immunology asset-based companies raised rounds of more than $100 million in 2022. This trend toward immunology aligns with the growing interest in regenerative cell therapies noted earlier, with most of those efforts focused on reversing immune drivers of disease. In 2022, VC funding supported a spectrum of immunology assets, ranging from companies focused on new therapeutic targets such as components of the inflammasome to those that offer improvements in tissue specificity and treatment administration of established targets such as IL-17 and TNF-alpha. https://lnkd.in/da_eswGN

A recent article in Nature Biotechnology provided an update on the recent financial challenges that have faced the biotech startup community🔬 - there are signs of hope. ✨ While public markets are tough, venture capital continues to support promising clinical-stage startups with larger rounds of financing. ✨ Big pharma is stepping in, driven by patent expirations, and large financing rounds are becoming the norm. ✨ Recent signals from the Fed on interest rate reductions is likely to return broader investor interest to biotechnology stocks ✨ While the investment environment for cell and gene therapies remains difficult due to challenges with scale-up and limited success in solid tumors, new technologies for CGT capable of automating manufacturing and improving therapeutic potency offer solutions. With both Adaptimmune and Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. recent approvals this year, and market fundamentals beginning to shift, we may be seeing early signs of market recovery and a broader return to investment in the field. Read more in the article at Nature Biotechnology: https://lnkd.in/gc6UGz2i #celltherapy #venturecapital