Otello Stampacchia, Omega
Amid a very difficult back half of the year for biotech investing, some bullish investors are making the case for a major rally in the coming year as pharma looks to utilize its growing mountain of cash. Now, biotech blue-chipper Omega Funds is getting itself set at the starting line.
Omega has closed a $650 million investment fund it’s calling Omega Fund VII, the VC firm’s latest and largest round in its 17 years in existence, it said Friday.
This fund puts Omega at more than $2 billion raised in the firm’s life span and comes at a critical time as the industry looks to turn the page on what has been a mostly disastrous year for venture capital as M&A and public offerings have slowed to a crawl.
Omega says its investments have gone on to bring 46 products to market as well as earn 35 M&A exits over the course of the firm’s history. Endpoints has covered more than a few of those high-profile startups, including Adagio Therapeutics, Kronos Bio and Sana Biotechnology, among many others.
Otello Stampacchia, Omega’s managing director, had this to say about the newest round:
We appreciate the trust from both our longstanding and new investors and their support of our differentiated model, which leverages our broad investment toolkit and data-driven approach to target transformative innovation. We look forward to contributing our conviction-building processes and network connectivity, in addition to capital, to the many entrepreneurs and founders intent on transforming existing standards of care for severe diseases. We believe this is the most exciting time to invest in healthcare, due to the accelerating pace of development in biotechnology and the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many novel discoveries about the human immune system. Omega will continue what it calls a ‘stage-agnostic’ approach to biotech investing, jumping in on companies’ financing rounds across the spectrum. Earlier-stage investing has grown increasingly common across biotech as VCs look for quick exits through an IPO or M&A, but this year — which started out on a record pace for public offerings — has mostly ground to a halt as biotech trading has dipped.
Meanwhile, outside of a recent chorus of bolt-on deals, M&A has also been on the downswing given a tough regulatory posture from US regulators.
With this fund, Omega will also add Mike Powell, a longtime former managing general partner at Sofinnova Investments, as a new executive director. Powell had been with Sofinnova since 1997 before making the leap to Omega in August. The firm will also promote Francesco Draetta, a principal with the firm since 2016, to the role of partner.
Sensor-based technology for clinical trial data collection represents the latest medical paradigm shift. There are more than 700 clinical studies involving wearable devices currently underway in the United States. A study from Intel IT projects their inclusion in clinical trials will surge to 70% by 2025.
Apps, biosensors and patient-centered technologies increase visibility of comprehensive patient data. Pharma leaders anticipate the benefits of wearables to include better data (58%), faster results (33%) and lower trial costs (10%).
Richard Pazdur (via AACR)
There’s no denying that Merck’s Keytruda set a high bar for checkpoint inhibitors in development everywhere. But when it comes to the often redundant development of PD(L)-1 antibodies worldwide, FDA’s top cancer doctors Rick Pazdur and Julia Beaver are calling for more industry coordination.
‘Efforts to corral this enthusiasm should focus on increased international partnerships between sponsors of approved checkpoint inhibitors and those developing novel agents to be used with anti–PD-1 and anti–PD-L1 antibodies rather than developing ‘me too’ drugs,’ Beaver and Pazdur wrote Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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The European Medicines Agency announced Friday it recommended the European Commission reject Aduhelm, dealing a new — albeit expected — blow to Biogen’s hopes of finding a widespread market for its struggling Alzheimer’s drug.
The EMA recommendation had been expected for a month, since the EMA’s human medicines committee gave Biogen ‘a negative trend vote’ after an oral presentation from the company. As such Biogen’s stock, which has lost all the stratospheric value it gained after Aduhelm’s approval in June, only ticked down 3% pre-market Friday, from $235.52 to $235.
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Justin Klee (L) and Joshua Cohen (Amylyx)
The biotech that has gone all-in on ALS on its way to earning one of the highest neuroscience financing rounds in the last five years is now ready to take the Nasdaq leap.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals filed its S-1 with the SEC late Thursday, penciling in a $100 million raise estimate to help bring its only product candidate to market. The move comes about five months after Amylyx pulled in $135 million in a Series C.
Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Since the pandemic began, the FDA has allowed women to access the abortion drug mifepristone via the mail, making it easier for them and ensuring that they don’t have to go to a clinic to receive the pills.
The FDA’s temporary change became permanent on Thursday afternoon, with the FDA announcing that the REMS on mifepristone (brand name Mifeprex) and its generic versions must be modified by removing this in-person dispensing requirement.
Pascal Prigent, Genfit CEO
Somebody believes in elafibranor after all.
The drug, which had been considered a bright prospect in the failure-prone but highly lucrative race to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, imploded after it failed a closely watched trial, forcing its developer, Genfit, to throw in the towel. But after a lonely year steering past the wreckage — chopping nearly half of its workforce in a painful restructuring — Genfit has found a trusting partner in fellow French drugmaker Ipsen.
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The FDA on Wednesday not only approved the first generic versions of the decades-old diabetes insipidus treatment vasopressin, but also simultaneously offered a particularly damning rebuke of a citizen petition attempting to block the generic, while promising to pass along the matter to the Federal Trade Commission.
The response could prove troublesome for the sponsor of the brand name version of the drug, Endo’s Par Sterile Products, which brought in more than $780 million in 2020 for its brand name version of the drug Vasostrict.
Robert Califf (Graeme Sloan/Sipa via AP Images)
As Rob Califf likely makes his return as FDA commissioner next month, his confirmation hearing yesterday offered a peek into some of the larger obstacles he’s going to face in the coming months and years.
The pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon with Omicron, and some vaccines and therapeutics may need to be tweaked or pulled from the market entirely as they prove to be ineffective against the new variant. The FDA, meanwhile, needs to get back on even footing with some longer-term direction.
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Crowd gathering at the Westin St. Francis for JPM in 2019 (Endpoints News)
Well, see you in January 2023.
In a surprise about-face, #JPM22 will now be fully virtual after organizers of the popular biotech conference decided to pull the plug on a live event in San Francisco given fears over the Omicron variant and a growing chorus of drugmakers opting out.
The move is no big surprise after reports swirled about some of the industry’s biggest players nixing plans to attend live and pressuring the bank to reconsider the annual meet at the Westin St. Francis. STAT reported Tuesday that Moderna and Amgen, among other large drugmakers, had already pulled out.
https://endpts.com/omega-funds-goes-back-to-the-well-with-newest-675m-fund-taking-a-stage-agnostic-approach-to-biotech-vc/
