As 2024 drew to a close, the cell and gene therapy sector has witnessed a string of recent approvals and some positive clinical trial data such as Mesoblast’s Ryoncil receiving FDA authorization for pediatric graft-versus-host disease in December, Adaptimmune’s Tecelra gaining approval for synovial sarcoma in August, and the landmark clearance of Casgevy (Exagamglogene Autotemcel)…
As biotech struggles, Big Pharma spends and trims workers
Many smaller biotech companies continue to face a cash crunch as a result of a challenging funding climate and a difficult IPO market. In the past couple of years, many smaller biotechs are running out of cash and being forced to cut jobs or shut down entirely. Median deal sizes for seed, Series A and Series B rounds…
20 biotech startups attracted almost $3B in Q1 2024 funding
The top 20 healthcare-focused biotech companies collectively raised $2.9 billion in the first quarter of 2024, according to data sourced from Crunchbase. That represents a 161% increase compared to the $1.1 billion raised by the 20 largest funding rounds involving healthcare-focused biotech companies in Q1 2023, indicating more confident bets on the market viability of…
Global biotech VC trends in Q1 2024
The first quarter of 2024 saw a flurry of funding activity in the biotech sector, with early-to-mid-stage companies attracting most of the investment dollars. Among the most notable late-stage deals was blood-based cancer diagnostics firm Freenome‘s $254 million Series E round. The South San Francisco-based company, which is developing a platform for early cancer detection…