While Wall Street largely backs away from the industry, Bay Area biotech companies have scored deals with targeted investors that in the past few months alone have quietly raised more than $100 million.
The moves come as the market for initial public offerings in the life sciences is down 90% year-over-year and about 200 newer public companies nationally are trading below the cash they hold. At the same time, fewer deals and less cash are finding private, early-stage, venture capital-backed companies.
The Oct. 25 announcement pushed Gritstone's stock from $2.23 per share that morning to $2.43 at the next day's opening, a 9% increase. Gritstone's PIPE came out of individual investors approaching the company, understanding the company's work on the Covid program and foreseeing the first mid-stage clinical trial data in fourth-quarter 2023 with its lead cancer drug program targeting individual markers on the cells of metastatic colorectal cancer patients.