Biotech’s overheated asset prices finally came home to roost. The NASDAQ Biotech Index’s multi-year ascent turning into a descent from February. But the hangover didn’t transfer to initial public offerings (IPOs), with the year witnessing three of the largest ever: SK Bioscience, SD Biosensor and Sana Biotechnology. South Korean companies were prominent in raising eye-popping amounts, and five of the top ten flotations were on Asian exchanges. Follow-on financings were less buoyant, down 34% from the previous year (notwithstanding BeiGene’s $3.5 billion haul, the second largest on record). US and European venture capital (VC) funds had a good year, spurring healthy company formation. ElevateBio, Centessa Pharmaceuticals and Atai Life Sciences signaled the rise of a new type of company: umbrella corporations containing multiple asset-centric ventures. In addition to enterprises developing RNA medicines, developers of adoptive immune cell therapies (Century Therapeutics, CARsgen Therapeutics, Lyell Immunopharma, Sonoma Biotherapeutics and Wugen) and PROTAC (proteolysis-targeting chimera) approaches (Imago Biosciences, Arvinas and Foghorn Therapeutics) were prominent in fundraising and partnering. Financing also rolled in to machine learning ventures, whether from the public markets (Recursion, Insilico Medicine and Exscientia) or from risk capital (EQRx, Insitro, XtalPi and Generate Biomedicines). Mergers were down, as pharma showed a greater interest in partnerships in the face of bloated biotech assets.
| | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|
Asia-Pacific | 13 | 25 | 40 | 44 | 44 |
Europe | 26 | 15 | 8 | 14 | 30 |
Americas | 33 | 56 | 47 | 75 | 90 |
- Source: BCIQ BioCentury Online Intelligence
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