California Biotech Funding in August 2019

Welcome to the newest instalment of Flagged Events: Funding segment. We’ll cover a sample of the drug companies with funding announcements in the previous month across different global markets. These include IPO announcements, grants, royalty payments, investments, and more. 

Here are some of the pharma/biotech companies headquartered in California that announced funding activity:

Public Offerings

Portola Pharmaceuticals ($PTLA)

On August 12, Portola announced a proposed offering of $200 million in common shares, with the option of purchase for an additional $30 million of the shares. Pricing was announced the following day, with the 8,035,715 shares offered at $28 per share.

City: San Francisco

Website: www.portola.com

Primary Therapeutic Area: Hematology

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Portola’s global activity!

‍

Rezolute Inc. ($RZLT)

On August 15, Rezolute filed an SEC form S-1 indicating a planned public offering, with date and pricing yet to be determined.

City: Redwood City

Website: https://www.rezolutebio.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Endocrine & Metabolic

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Rezolute’s global activity!

‍

Collaborations & Royalty Payments

Ionis Pharmaceuticals ($IONS)

Announced August 27, Ionis will license their antisense medications for chronic hepatitis virus (CHB) infection to GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) in a new agreement. Under the terms of the deal, Ionis will receive a $25 million licensing fee, as well as potential milestone payments of up to $262 million and royalties on sales revenues.

City: Carlsbad

Website: www.ionispharma.com

Primary Therapeutic Area: CNS & Rare Disease

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Ionis’ global activity!

‍

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals ($ARWR)

On August 28, Arrowhead announced that Janssen ($JNJ) had begun a Phase IIb combination study (NCT03982186) of different regimens for the treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B infection, which includes their candidate JNJ-3989. The candidate was formerly known as ARO-HBV, and is part of a $3.7 Billion licensing and collaboration agreement between Arrowhead and Janssen from last October. As part of this agreement, Arrowhead earned a $25 million milestone payment.

City: Pasadena

Website: https://arrowheadpharma.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Liver Disease

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Arrowhead’s global activity!

Grants

Vitalex Biosciences 

Vitalex received a Phase 1 SBIR grant payment of $299 778 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

City: irvine

Website: No published website, but check out Discovering Biotech Startups: A map for Selling to Vitalex Biosciences!

Primary Therapeutic Area: Infectious Diseases

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Vitalex’s global activity!

Epigen Biosciences 

Epigen received a Phase 2 SBIR grant payment of $1 169 102 from the National Institute of Aging.

City: San Diego

Website: http://www.epigenbiosciences.com/

Primary Therapeutic Areas: CNS & Metabolic

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Epigen’s global activity!

Investment and Other Financing

Glycomine Inc. 

On August 7, Glycomine announced that it had raised a Series B round of financing totalling $33 million. The round was led by Novo Holdings A/S, with additional investment from Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, Mission Bay Capital, Sanderling, and Chiesi Ventures. The proceeds from the round will be used for the continued development of Glycomine’s unknown mannose-1-phosphate replacement candidate that is currently under early development. They are currently conducting a natural history study of patients with PMM2-CDG (NCT03173300)

City: San Carlos

Website: https://glycomine.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Rare Disease

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view Glycomine’s global activity!

RadImmune Therapeutics

SEC records indicate that RadImmune received $13.6 million in equity financing between August 2 and August 22, towards a total offering of $21.8 million.

City: Menlo Park

Website: http://radimmune.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Oncology

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

Have a Zymewire account? Click here to view RadImmune’s global activity!

Get the whole picture

If you’d like to track funding activities across the regions that matter to you, all without relying on a database, Zymewire is here to help. Put your prospecting and sales research on autopilot so that you can quickly identify and prioritize new opportunities. Reach out today, and stay tuned for the next instalment of Flagged Events: Funding. If you enjoy these articles, please feel free to give them a share through the social links below!