|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ITM Nabs $204 Million for Radiopharmaceutical Treatments
|
|
By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good day. A new financing for ITM Isotope Technologies Munich brings the German biotechnology company’s total venture backing to about €500 million, equivalent to about $543 million, and will help it advance treatments in one of the pharmaceutical industry’s hottest sectors.
Radiopharmaceuticals use a targeting molecule to guide radiation to tumors. The idea—similar in concept to another type of targeted cancer therapy known as antibody-drug conjugates—isn’t new. But it has gained momentum lately with the success of new drugs such as Pluvicto, a prostate-cancer therapy sold by drugmaker Novartis. Pluvicto generated $980 million in 2023 sales, Novartis said in January.
Venture investors have profited from this sector. Venture-backed radiopharmaceutical company RayzeBio, for example, went public in September and in December agreed to a $4.1 billion deal to be acquired by drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb, which completed the acquisition in February.
One constraint for the sector is the difficulty of securing radioactive isotopes, which are produced in special nuclear reactors or generators. To succeed, companies must manufacture them or ensure they have reliable suppliers.
ITM claims an advantage in this area. Founded in 2004, the company spent its early years as a radioisotope manufacturer before expanding, in 2012, to also become a drug developer, said Chief Executive Steffen Schuster. Today, it supplies radioisotopes to clinics and radiopharmaceutical companies and manufactures them for its own treatments.
“We can feed our own drugs; we’re not depending on other parties,” Schuster said.
ITM’s new, €188 million ($204 million) financing, led by Temasek, will help it expand its manufacturing and develop a treatment in late-stage, or Phase 3, clinical trials for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, which are rare cancers that form in the pancreas or other parts of the gastrointestinal tract, according to the National Cancer Institute. The company also is working on earlier-stage treatments for prostate cancer and glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, Schuster said.
And now on to the news...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PHOTO: RULA ROUHANA/REUTERS
|
|
|
|
|
|
Biotech venture financing hasn’t loosened up yet. Biotechnology entrepreneurs early this year hoped for venture investment in their industry to recover. They’re still waiting. Biotech venture financing remains tight as investors channel money into fewer companies considered the strongest players.
-
While biotech venture investment globally rose from $6.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 to $7.4 billion in the first three months of this year, according to market tracker PitchBook Data, the number of completed biotech venture financing deals is on the decline.
-
A run of biotech mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings, and the potential for interest rate cuts, initially created optimism that venture investment would rebound this year after falling the past two years.
-
But rather than spreading their bets widely, venture firms are investing heavily in startups with proven teams targeting large markets such as obesity, cancer and inflammation.
|
|
|
|
|
$7.4 Billion
|
|
The amount of venture capital biotechnology startups globally raised in the first quarter, according to market tracker PitchBook.
|
|
|
|
|
Lung Cancer Was a Death Sentence. Now Drugs Are Saving Lives.
|
|
|
There is more hope than ever for people diagnosed with the deadliest cancer, The Wall Street Journal reports. Declines in smoking and the advent of screening and newer drugs have transformed the outlook for patients with lung cancer, once considered a death sentence. Progress against the disease has propelled the drop in overall cancer deaths in the U.S. over the past three decades. And there is more to gain. More patients can fend off the disease for months or years with targeted or immune-boosting drugs, results released recently at a top cancer conference showed. That includes patients with forms of the disease that are notoriously tough to treat.
-
“It had such an abysmal prognosis. And now we have people who are being cured who we never thought would be cured,” said Dr. Angela DeMichele, a medical oncologist at Penn Medicine.
|
|
Private Equity Puts Brakes on Healthcare Roll-Ups
|
|
|
Private-equity firms have sharply slowed their serial acquisitions of smaller medical businesses, deals that U.S. antitrust regulators say often unfairly reduce competition and harm patients, WSJ Pro reports. This year there have been 180 private-equity add-on deals—transactions in which a buyout firm acquires a company to combine with one the firm already owns—in the U.S. healthcare sector through May 28, just 23% of last year’s full-year total, according to data-tracking firm PitchBook Data.
-
While all private-equity activity is down this year, healthcare roll-ups are down more sharply.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AcuityMD, a Boston-based sales and marketing platform for the medical technology industry, landed $45 million in Series B funding led by Iconiq Growth.
Eko Health, an Emeryville, Calif.-based company applying artificial intelligence for early detection of heart and lung diseases, scored $41 million in Series D funding from Artis Ventures, Questa Capital and others.
HyperSpectral, an Alexandria, Va.-based startup whose technology helps the agricultural and medical industries detect pathogens and contaminants, emerged from stealth with $8.5 million in Series A financing from investors including RRE Ventures.
Psylo, a startup developing treatments for psychiatric and neurological conditions, has closed on $5 million toward a targeted $8 million seed round led by Tenmile.
Eyebot, a Boston-based provider of automated self-serve vision tests, closed a $6 million seed round led by AlleyCorp and Ubiquity Ventures.
Keragon, a Boston-based no-code workflow automation platform for the healthcare industry, launched from stealth with a $3 million investment co-led by Focal and Afore Capital.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The author works out near his home outside San Francisco, May 21. PHOTO: LOREN ELLIOTT FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Neuro-immunology: the promise of a differentiated approach to neurodegenerative disease (Life Sci VC)
-
The bird flu questions that influenza and animal scientists desperately want answered (STAT)
-
FDA panel votes against MDMA therapy for PTSD, citing muddy data and safety concerns (BioPharma Dive)
-
You won’t lose weight on Ozempic forever (New York Times)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
