Massachusetts Biotech Funding in June 2019

Welcome to the newest segment of our Flagged Events series, Flagged Events: Funding. We’ll cover 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 in the Boston market and across the rest of Massachusetts that announced funding events:

Karuna Therapeutics ($KRTX)

On June 3rd, the clinical stage biopharma out of Boston filed a Form S-1 with the SEC for a proposed initial public offering for listing on NASDAQ. Pricing of the IPO was announced June 27th at $16.00 per share for 5,578,124 shares of common stock, with the company successfully listing the following day.

City: Boston

Website: https://karunatx.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: CNS

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

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

Cotinga Pharmaceuticals ($COT)

In mid-March, the company announced a unit offering of debentures and non-transferable common share purchase warrants, with the intention of the offering’s proceeds to be used for funding the initiation of two COTI-2 combination trials and general operations.The offering was closed on May 22nd, generating proceeds of $199,970. The second tranche of the unit offering closed June 4th, with proceeds of $100,000.

City: Boston

Website: http://coti.theyatesnetwork.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Oncology

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

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

Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($VRTX)

The commercial stage biotech announced both an expanded collaboration with CRISPR Therapeutics ($CRSP), as well as their acquisition of Exonics Therapeutics on June 6th.

Under the terms of the exclusive licensing agreement, Vertex will make an upfront payment of $175 million to CRISPR as they collaborate on the discovery and development of gene editing therapies targeting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1). CRISPR Therapeutics will be eligible for payments of up to $1 billion, as well as royalty payments on future product sales stemming from the collaboration.

Vertex also announced that their acquisition of Boston’s Exonics Therapeutics for $245 million. The acquisition will further enhance Vertex’s gene therapy research efforts in the development of therapies for DMD and DM1.

City: Boston

Website: https://www.vrtx.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Respiratory

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

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

Genocea Biosciences ($GNCA)

Genocea filed a Form S-1 with the SEC for a planned IPO on June 7th, later announcing the pricing of $36,750,000 for 10.5 million shares at $3.50 per share on June 20th. An option to purchase an additional 1,575,000 shares within 30 days was also made available.

City: Cambridge

Website: https://www.genocea.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Oncology

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

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

Scholar Rock ($SRRK)

The Cambridge clinical stage biotech announced their proposed public offering of 3 million shares of common stock on June 18th, with the 30 day option for an additional 450,000 shares to be purchased, which was exercised by the underwriters of the offering.

City: Cambridge

Website: https://scholarrock.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Oncology and Musculoskeletal

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

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

Sesen Bio ($SESN)

The late stage clinical biotech announced their proposed offering of common stock and warrants on June 18th. The proceeds of the offering would be going towards the clinical development and FDA submission of Vicinium for high risk non muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), as well as the continued development of commercial infrastructure upon approval of the candidate. Pricing for the 20.41 million share offering was announced June 19th at $1.47 per share, with expected proceeds to total around $30 million.

City: Cambridge

Website: https://sesenbio.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Oncology

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

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

Axial Biotherapeutics

Waltham’s CNS biotech, Axial Biotherapeutics, received a $10 million investment from Taiho Ventures. The investment comes as an extension of Axial’s recent series B round, which closed back in February.

SEC records also report Axial receiving $5 million in equity financing towards a $10 million offering on June 24th.

City: Waltham

Website: https://www.axialbiotherapeutics.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: CNS

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: Yes

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

Fulcrum Therapeutics

On June 21st, the clinical stage biopharma filed a Form S-1 to the SEC for a public offering, with pricing and date to be announced.

City: Cambridge

Website: https://www.fulcrumtx.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Musculoskeletal

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

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

XenoTherapeutics 

SEC records report XenoTherapeutics’ receipt of $700 thousand in equity, debt, options, and security to be acquired financing between May 21st and the June 25th record date. The sale amount was towards a total offering of $4 million, indicated for the ongoing merger with Boston Translational LLC and the annual wages of the CEO, CFO, and COO.

City: Boston

Website:https://www.xenotherapeutics.com/

Primary Therapeutic Area: Dermatology

Preclinical Activity in the past 12 months: No

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

Looking for more?

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!