De­spite plen­ty of bears and lit­tle in­vestor ap­petite, three biotechs beef up 2022's pri­vate place­ment lows

In the depths of frigid, snowy Chica­go win­ters, it’s wise and life-sav­ing to wear plen­ty of lay­ers when step­ping out­side. In a cold, bear mar­ket that has shut­tered near­ly every chance at en­ter­ing, pub­lic biotechs are al­so try­ing to add on lay­ers in the form of fol­low-on fi­nanc­ings, be­cause hav­ing a tick­er means al­ways be­ing out­side.

Padding the re­serves with more cap­i­tal is an up­hill bat­tle in a mar­ket lit­tered with biotechs trad­ing be­low cash, a slew of neg­a­tive tri­al re­sults and a rel­a­tive­ly stag­nant M&A path. Yet, some biotechs have been able to se­cure mit­tens, scarves and even parkas in this en­vi­ron­ment. Three more an­nounced plans Thurs­day night and be­fore Nas­daq turned on the lights Fri­day morn­ing.

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