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Pullan’s Pieces #4 – January – A Corner on Market Sentiments – Seed to Series A

19 Aug

As the saying goes, “What’s in a name?  That which we call a Series A by any other name would smell as sweet.”  Er… something like that, right? Hmmm, maybe it went a little bit differently.

But whatever it be, or not to be😊, the Seed Round is the new Series A. Clearly. I think we’ve all felt it for sometime but the data is in and the good ‘ole Series A just don’t buy what it used to.  Nahhh… the Seed round does that, and it may buy more (equity) than it used to as a Series A (more data hunting and crunching required but one gets a sense that the venture capitalists are, well, capitalizing).

Labiotech does a really nice job collecting and summarizing a variety of topics related to financings and dealmaking in the biotech sector and the 2024 breakdown of funding offers the following approximations (roughly, with some rounding made by this author):

The internal breakdowns for amounts invested look like this:

Readers of this corner will know that we keep a close eye on the XBI

As usual, the outliers can skew the numbers (more on this in a moment) but the median amounts invested into these rounds puh-rihhhty much drive the nail in the coffin of the old thinking about Series dynamics. This data could be charted in another way in which an inverted bell curve would appear and a GAPING hole between $20M and $50M would stare back at you.  Think about that for a moment… if you can’t get to value inflection for ~$15-20M, you better be raising $60-75M and have multiple reasons to do so as a cursory view of the companies listed in the dataset further indicates that the lower outliers (sub-median) on the Series A were generally geared for “finding out” about a single asset in the clinic.

Back to that previously mentioned outlier that can skew the averages… it also happens to bring even more of a spotlight to those famed words from Shakespeare which began this Corner on Market Sentiments.  One of the companies in the 2024 data set raised a whopping $100,000,000 … as a Seed Round!!  Indeed, a rose by any other name…

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Pullan’s Pieces #4 – China, Japan, Europe, Korea vs US- Collaborate or Compete?

5 Aug

As a deal maker, where should I go for a deal?  Where is my competition?

There is so much written about China, I thought I would try to put it in the context of other countries.

DEMOGRAPHICS:  China is Big but low GDP per capita, Japan has the oldest population.  Both Japan and China may have reached peak population, while the US has immigration to continue growth.  China and Japan have more big cities (making clinical trial recruitment easier).

The Medical Culture varies tremendously.  

The US, with the 3rd largest population and private insurance, has the biggest market

But there are even bigger differences in the magnitude of sales of new drugs. In the US, to be in the top 10 in 2031 means double digit billions.

The biggest company R&D budgets per company are in “Global companies”.

The biggest European and Japanese companies have become global companies. 

The biggest companies in the US have 45%-70% of their Rx sales in the US.

The biggest companies in Europe have 15%-30% of their Rx sales in Europe.

The biggest companies in Japan have <10% (Takeda) to 39% of their sales in Japan. (Smaller Japanese companies have most of their Rx sales in Japan)

The biggest Chinese companies have 80-95% of their sales in China.

2024 saw a surge in approvals: In 2024, China first-approved 93 innovative drugs, with 42% being domestically developed. But China is losing domestic market share to MNCs.

The biggest Korean companies with biologics (Samsung and Celltrion) have 10-20% of their sales in Korea.  The other big Korean companies have 70-90% of their Rx sales in Korea.

But China has almost as many drugs in Phase 1 thru 3 as the US, in almost as many companies as in the US.  

There are more companies getting series A in the US and in China but the dollar amount is smaller in China. 

The US leads in IPOs

But the Hong Kong Hang Seng Biotech Index was up 87% year to date (while the US XBI was down 6%).  

Europe is active in company acquisitions, but Asia is not.  

For companies with headquarters in the US, Europe, Japan and Korea:  most partnering deals are early and with more in-licensing than out-licensing. 

China does more out-licensing than in-licensing.  

So as a deal-maker, what do I think this data suggests?

1)  You need to capture value from the US, the biggest market and home of blockbusters.

2) US companies do the most in-licensing. US and Europe do the most M&A.

3) The most deals in 2024 and 1st Half of 2025 are still done at discovery and preclinical.

4) Japanese companies are increasingly global companies and do more in-licensing than out-licensing.

5)  China is a source of drugs to bring in, with many drugs in the pipeline and new series A companies needing partners to maximize their value. China does more out-licensing than in-licensing.  Presumably, the huge China vs China competition is pushing Chinese companies to innovate more to compete and to do deals.   And more exits (IPOs and M&A) encourages more VC funding of innovation.

6)  But the low cost and the high populations cities (for fast recruitment) means China should be considered for collaborations for your drug development.  (Just remember you need 20% of patients in the US for FDA approval).

7) Korea is a high-income market but small.  In-licensing deals are often early or at market stage.

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Pullan’s Pieces #3 – January – A Corner on Market Sentiments – Seed to Series A

29 Jul

As the saying goes, “What’s in a name? That which we call a Series A by any other name would smell as sweet.” Er… something like that, right? Hmmm, maybe it went a little bit differently.

But whatever it be, or not to be😊, the Seed Round is the new Series A. Clearly. I think we’ve all felt it for sometime but the data is in and the good ‘ole Series A just don’t buy what it used to. Nahhh… the Seed round does that, and it may buy more (equity) than it used to as a Series A (more data hunting and crunching required but one gets a sense that the venture capitalists are, well, capitalizing).

Labiotech does a really nice job collecting and summarizing a variety of topics related to financings and dealmaking in the biotech sector and the 2024 breakdown of funding offers the following approximations (roughly, with some rounding made by this author):

The internal breakdowns for amounts invested look like this:


Readers of this corner will know that we keep a close eye on the XBI

As usual, the outliers can skew the numbers (more on this in a moment) but the median amounts invested into these rounds puh-rihhhty much drive the nail in the coffin of the old thinking about Series dynamics. This data could be charted in another way in which an inverted bell curve would appear and a GAPING hole between $20M and $50M would stare back at you. Think about that for a moment… if you can’t get to value inflection for ~$15-20M, you better be raising $60-75M and have multiple reasons to do so as a cursory view of the companies listed in the dataset further indicates that the lower outliers (sub-median) on the Series A were generally geared for “finding out” about a single asset in the clinic.

Back to that previously mentioned outlier that can skew the averages… it also happens to bring even more of a spotlight to those famed words from Shakespeare which began this Corner on Market Sentiments. One of the companies in the 2024 data set raised a whopping $100,000,000 … as a Seed Round!! Indeed, a rose by any other name…

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Inomagen Therapeutics: RESI Boston June IPC Winner

15 Jul

Inomagen Therapeutics, led by Chief Business Officer Eric Sandberg, is working to redefine how atrial fibrillation is treated—starting at the molecular level. A recent winner in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge at RESI Boston June. In this interview, Sandberg shares insights into the company’s novel approach, development progress, and how RESI helped build investor momentum.

Eric Sandberg
 CaitiCaitlin Dolegowski

Caitlin Dolegowski (CD): Tell us about Inomagen Therapeutics, what is your core focus, and what inspired your approach to treating atrial fibrillation?

Eric Sandberg (ES): Inomagen Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing a non-viral gene therapy to improve the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common sustained heart rhythm disorder affecting 10M people in the US alone.  Patients with AF do not feel well and have a 4-5x increased risk of stroke, 2x risk of having a heart attack, and AF is a major cause of heart failure.  Unfortunately, current therapies, including cardiac ablation, have proven ineffective for many patients because they do not address the underlying mechanisms of the disease.

Inomagen’s approach is based on research conducted by our Founder, CEO and practicing electrophysiologist, Dr. Rishi Arora.  In his research laboratory, Dr. Arora identified major molecular mechanisms that contribute to AF in a majority of patients with AF; identified major trans-genes to selectively target these mechanisms in the atrium; utilized low energy electroporation to achieve therapeutic gene transfer and expression; and decreased AF in clinically relevant, large animal models of AF.

CD: What differentiates your platform from other therapies available to treat atrial fibrillation?

ES: Ablation is the mainstay of AF treatment. However, ablation success rates are suboptimal in patients with persistent AF. This is thought to be in large part because ablation is an anatomic procedure that is not targeted to the molecular mechanisms underlying AF. Inomagen has developed a non-viral gene therapy that targets one or more major molecular mechanisms underlying AF.  Specifically, we have demonstrated preclinical success delivering NOX2 shRNA plasmids to atrial tissue to achieve gene knockdown, to silence upstream mechanisms of AF, in order to achieve a therapeutic effect.  To be clear, our gene therapy is not replacing genes or editing genes, we are knocking down the expression of genes that are causing AF.  Based on our preclinical results, we believe that our gene therapy can potentially surpass cardiac ablation as the therapy of choice for atrial fibrillation.

To achieve safe and effective targeted gene delivery, we have developed a novel transvenous gene delivery system that uses low energy reversible electroporation to achieve high levels of gene transfection into atrial tissue.   We believe that our physical gene delivery approach overcomes the known challenges of using viral vectors which include insufficient gene transfection and well publicized off-target effects.  As such, we believe our gene delivery approach can potentially serve as a platform technology for other companies developing cardiac gene therapies, including gene therapy in the ventricles for congestive heart failure.

CD: Where are you in terms of preclinical or clinical development, and what are your near-term goals?

ES: With our recent development of a proprietary NOX2 shRNA gene plasmid and a gene delivery catheter, we have now achieved program readiness to initiate IND-enabling studies to gain FDA approval for a Phase I/IIa clinical study.  In the near term, we will be conducting IND-enabling studies in the 2nd half of the year in preparation for a pre-IND meeting with the FDA early next year prior to conducting pivotal tox and filing an IND in late 2026.  We aim to initiate our Phase I/IIa clinical study in 2027.

CD: What are you seeking in your current fundraising round, and what kind of investors or strategic partners are you hoping to connect with?

ES: We are currently raising a $5M Series Seed round and will be initiating a larger Series A round later this year to support the program through a Phase I/IIa study.  In the near term, ideal investors for Inomagen include angel groups and individuals, while we anticipate our Series A to be led by venture capital investors. Additionally, given the potential of Inomagen’s gene therapy to markedly improve the treatment of atrial fibrillation, we have several potential strategic partners who are tracking our progress.

Inomagen has multiple gene targets in our pipeline and a robust IP portfolio that includes 18 issued patents protecting genes/biologics and gene delivery.  We have an experienced team committed to bringing our gene therapy to the clinic.

CD: How did your participation in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge at RESI Boston contribute to your visibility or investor outreach efforts?

ES: Our participation provided the opportunity to continue to share the progress that we are making with the attendees at RESI.  And being recognized as a top company in the Pitch Challenge has certainly provided increased visibility for Inomagen through Life Science Nation’s extensive readership.  We have experienced a further increase of interest in Inomagen, including a significant increase in traffic to our  website.

CD: Can you share any valuable feedback or connections that came out of the pitch sessions or RESI partnering meetings?

ES: Following our presentation in the Pitch Challenge, we added several more partnering meetings with interested investors. Given our experience at the June RESI meeting, we registered to attend the September RESI meeting as well.

CD: What advice would you give to fellow early-stage biotech founders about preparing for and participating in a RESI pitch competition?

ES: The RESI pitch competition provided a good opportunity to make sure that we are communicating the Inomagen opportunity clearly to potential investors. We appreciated the opportunity to join the many impressive companies presenting at RESI who have a passion to improve health care for patients and providers.

Applications are now open for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge at RESI Boston this September.
New! The IPC Pitch Package now includes an optional second full RESI pass at no additional cost—bring a teammate to support investor meetings, pitch preparation, and maximize your conference presence.

Apply to Pitch at RESI Boston Sept. 2025

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