Category Archives: Exits IPOs M&As

“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

Novartis recently announced the acquisition of Mariana Oncology, an emerging biotech focused on advancing a radioligand therapeutics platform, for up to $1.75 billion in upfronts and future milestones. The capstone of its three short years of operations, this acquisition represents

Today IFM Therapeutics announced the acquisition of IFM Due, one of its subsidiaries, by Novartis. Back in Sept 2019, IFM granted Novartis the right to acquire IFM Due as part of an “option to buy” collaboration around cGAS-STING antagonists for

By Robert Clarke, CEO of Kinaset, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC As I write, I am on the train back from New York after watching my son’s NYU basketball team play in the 2024 D3

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

Today we’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Nimbus’ allosteric Tyk2 autoimmune program by Takeda for up to $6 billion in an upfront and future milestones. As a potential best-in-class asset in the significant new therapeutic category of selective Tyk2

By Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch PhD, JD, CEO of VIGIL NEUROSCIENCE, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Compared to most industries, biotech life cycles are lengthy. From R&D and clinical development to regulatory approval, it takes an average

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

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.

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,

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

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

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

Today Alkermes announced its acquisition of Rodin Therapeutics, a leader in the field of synaptic dysfunction and neuronal epigenetics. Alkermes extensive experience in CNS diseases made them an ideal partner for Rodin, and this acquisition helps expand Alkermes’ efforts into

Today Novartis announced the acquisition of IFM Therapeutics’ portfolio of NLRP3 antagonists, via the purchase of IFM Tre, a subsidiary of IFM (here, here). These immunomodulatory medicines target the inflammasome, a key innate immune node whose pathologic chronic activation is associated with

Back in September 2018, the FDA approved Lilly’s Emgality, an anti-CGRP antibody therapy, for the preventative treatment of episodic and chronic migraine. Arteaus Therapeutics, a biotech company founded by Atlas Venture in 2011, played a critical role in Emgality’s early

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 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

This blog was written by Samantha Truex, CEO of Quench Bio and Atlas Entrepreneur-in-Residence, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. In early September, I saw my two teenagers off to new destinations where they will live

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.

This blog was written by Jeb Keiper, CFO & CBO of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Elon Musk has a flare for the dramatic, shocking Wall Street (and others) the first week

Last week, AvroBio and Magenta Therapeutics priced their IPOs on the same night. Less than three months earlier, Unum Therapeutics priced its IPO. All three biotech companies are emerging leaders in the cell and gene therapy space, broadly defined. They

Like all avid fly fishermen, I can recount many stories about the big ones that got away. The same goes for my experience in venture capital… as I’ve certainly missed some big ones. With the acquisition of Juno Therapeutics by

Yesterday Celgene finalized its acquisition of Juno Therapeutics for $9B, only a few short months after Gilead bought Kite Pharma for $11.9B. With only a few hundred patients ever treated with their therapies, $20B represents a lot of promise in

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

Four years ago, in December 2013, I highlighted Atlas’ seed-led venture creation model by walking through our Fund IX Seed Class of 2013.  Only a short 1400 days ago, reading it again last week made it seem like an eternity.

This blog was written by Sam Truex, former CBO of Padlock and Synlogics, and current Atlas EIR, as part of the From the Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Funding for biotech companies has been abundant this year. As covered the first

Last month, Bloomberg bemoaned the dearth of biotech M&A, and pundits echoed the sentiment (here, here), citing concerns about tax rates and drug pricing. The top line numbers in Bloomberg’s graph certainly paint a dim view of 2017’s global biotech

Today BMS announced the acquisition of IFM Therapeutics, an emerging biotech focused on modulating core innate immune pathways to treat cancer and autoimmune disease. As described in the press release, BMS will acquire the company for $300M upfront, with potentially

Lightning can definitely strike the same place twice, or so it seems in biotech. The latest example is True North Therapeutics’ recent acquisition by Bioverativ for its program addressing cold agglutinin disease, a type of rare autoimmune hemolytic anemia: it