Category Archives: Capital markets

“May you live in interesting times” – or so goes the phrase. In 1966, RFK Jr’s father famously used that quote to capture the turbulence of the times, and continued: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They

Today’s market likes products. Platforms aren’t in vogue anymore. Investors, especially in the public markets, only want late stage de-risked assets. Pharma only seems to be buying these kinds of asset. VCs need to focus on clinical stage companies. Or

Venture creation in biotech is witnessing a sustained contraction. After the pandemic bubble’s over-indulgence, the venture ecosystem appears to have reset its pace of launching new startups. According to the latest Pitchbook data, venture creation in biotech hit its slowest

Biotech feels like it’s got some wind in its sails here at the start of 2024, with positive sentiments from the JPM conference. Indeed, the public equity markets feeling somewhat buoyant for the first time in ages. With the close

After the bursting of the pandemic biotech bubble, talk of industry consolidation was ubiquitous. The sector had pushed out too many IPOs during the go-go years, leading to too many public biotech companies, with sub-scale enterprises, and wasteful crowding in

2023 couldn’t end fast enough for most of us in biopharma; its been a tough year in the capital markets, and the industry is facing it’s fair share of headwinds. Fortunately, despite all that, great science and medicine continues to

By Robert Clarke, CEO of Kinaset Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC It’s now been a couple of months since the SVB collapse and the scramble many of us faced during that tumultuous few weeks.

It’s biotech armageddon out there: with massive value destruction across public stocks, it’s clearly the worst market backdrop in over 20 years. Nothing like this pullback has happened in recent memory. This is way worse than the short “sky is

By Robert Clarke, CEO of Kinaset, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Although I intend to shy away from the cult of celebrity, a recent clip from Tom Hanks resonated with me regarding the current state

Another day, another “restructuring” – there’s been a flurry of press releases recently using phrases like “exploring strategic alternatives”, “extending the cash runway”, and “de-prioritizing” certain R&D programs. These announcements are obviously responses to the tough market environment. In every

While the pace of startup formation in biotech has been accelerating over the past decade, early signs suggest the malaise in the markets is finding its way back into the venture creation ecosystem. Startups get formed, often in stealth, and

There’s “just too many early stage companies going public”, or so goes one of the most common lamentations about the current state of the biotech market. I’ve read a good deal of venting covering this theme, including comments about VCs

Misery loves company, and so it goes with the stock market for the innovation ecosystem these days. The general risk-off market environment has been crushing both the emerging tech and biotech sectors alike. Last year, generalists in many ways capitulated

Biotech sentiment is super bearish today, as the sector has been crushed over the last year. There’s blood in the water, especially for small and mid-cap players, and everyone’s looking for what caused the carnage. There are many factors at

We’ve now entered the 46th straight quarter of biotech IPO activity. New equity issuance for biotech in 2021 has broken records for the amount of capital raised, topping even the strong years of 2020 and 2014. Although the open and

We just held our first-ever, and hopefully only, virtual Atlas Venture Annual Meeting for our investors. Although science is winning in this pandemic, we’re clearly not back to normal yet so felt it prudent to shift to a virtual format.

By Sam Truex, Venture Partner at Atlas Venture, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Holy cow, have we seen the rain lately – both downpours outside and a downpour of SPAC activity. In October 2020, Bruce

The universe of public biotech companies has been growing for a decade, and increasingly so in the past few years as the IPO market has flourished. Hundreds of young aspiring biotechs have tapped into the public equity markets, swelling the

Despite saving the world from COVID, pharma and biotech are still in the crosshairs of many politicians. With many anti-Pharma politicians and regulators emboldened in the current environment, and with more aggressive tax and spending policy in the works, there

2020 was an incredibly paradoxical year for those of us in biotech: the striking dichotomy of simultaneously experiencing agonizing tragedy alongside buoyant optimism. It was truly a horrifically tragic year for humanity, and for America in particular.  As everyone knows,

By Joshua Brumm, CEO of Dyne Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Over the course of my career in healthcare, I’ve been fortunate to serve in a leadership role through four IPOs and even more

Biotech punches way above its weight-class, and that’s never been more apparent than in this pandemic and the race for a COVID vaccine. For those of us in biopharma, it feels like it’s a large and dynamic sector populated by

SPACs are all the rage today. With the IPO market booming and public investors seeking better returns, blank check companies called “Special Purpose Acquisition Companies” (SPACs) have been fueling up their tanks and chasing down their merger targets. New ones

In the excitement of today’s biotech IPO market, and the bullish period since 2013, it’s almost hard to remember how painful the equity capital markets were back in the day. When I began my career in venture capital in 2004,

August continued to show the biotech market’s resilience in the face of the COVID pandemic with one of the biggest venture fund flows for the month ever, and a half a dozen IPOs. Kymera Therapeutics was one of those August

We’re half way through one of the craziest years in recent memory, with a raging viral pandemic, civil unrest and protests, staggering unemployment and economic woes, and invasive murder hornets. And yet, like the indefatigable Energizer bunny, the biotech market

The biotech IPO market in 2020 remains strong, despite the volatility and COVID headwinds. We’ve seen stellar pricings and good after-market performance, with ten new offerings already this year. And the queue for companies with active S1’s on file is

M&A is an omnipresent reality in the biopharma industry, from Big Pharma mega-mergers to smaller acquisitions of emerging startups. We’ve recently witnessed several large M&A transactions get closed or announced, including BMS-Celgene, Takeda-Shire, and AbbVie-Allergan; according to BMO Capital Markets

This blog post was written by Aoife Brennan, CEO of Synlogic, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. My first job at a public company was when I joined Biogen or Biogen Idec as it was then

Biotech is in the midst of an incredible era of innovation: new modalities and novel medicines delivering real value to patients, leading to a decade-long bull cycle. It’s been exhilarating to watch and participate in this market, and venture capital

It’s that time of year again when we pause to reflect on the state of the industry – and there’s more to focus on in biopharma today than just the drug pricing debate. As I described last year, we host

Over the past six years, the biotech sector has experienced an incredible run of IPOs, reflecting the longest and largest “open window” for new offerings. Much has been written about post-IPO performance here and elsewhere, but there’s been little discussion

2018 was a gangbuster year for VC-funding into startups, reaching levels not seen since the height of the dot-com and genomics era. According to recent data from the NVCA/Pitchbook, VC across all sectors topped $130B invested across nearly 9000 deals

2018 was a incredible boom year in the number of new biotech offerings, with 60 IPOs on US exchanges. But as we’re all painfully aware, after the overall biotech market ($XBI) touched its all-time high in August, the last third

2018 has so far been another gangbuster year for biotech IPOs: the first three quarters of the year have delivered nearly 50 new biotech offerings, reinforcing the strong new issuance performance of the past 6 years. With lots of pundits

The dreaded “lockup expiry” is something all newly-minted public biotechs begin to worry about shortly after their offerings. The fear seems reasonable: venture investors and other large shareholders, now free to trade, dump large amounts of stock into the market

The biotech IPO market continues to march forward, with five new offerings expected to price in the next week or so. Investor demand for stories advancing novel innovative therapies remains at historic levels – extending what is now over a

The biotech sector is unique relative to the rest of the stock market in many ways, but one that is often overlooked: its expansionary public equity market footprint. It’s been well appreciated by market analysts that the universe of U.S.

Heading into the winter holidays always brings out festive reflections of the past year. Twelve months ago, we were thrilled to say goodbye to 2016 and excited to embrace 2017’s promise.  And in large part, the past year has delivered

Good riddance to 2016, and a warm embrace to 2017 – or so is the sentiment of most biotech investors as they head into the 35th annual JPM Healthcare Conference. Many have bemoaned last year as an abysmal one for