Egetis Therapeutics AB

Frazier Life Sciences has added more than $630 million to its evergreen public fund, the firm said Wednesday. The long-only fund, which is based in Palo Alto, CA, has been marketed to investors as a “hybrid structure to navigate volatility and liquidity in SMID-cap biotech,” according to materials posted by the New Mexico State Investment Council, which is committing up to $50 million to the public fund. “We are seeking to strategically take advantage of market volatility,” the firm said in June in its investor presentation. It now has $1.7 billion in total commitments after debuting with $830 million in 2021 and raising $243 million a year later. The biotech landscape is far different than when Frazier unwrapped its public fund in the fall of 2021. In September of that year, the number of life sciences companies with a negative enterprise value was 21. As of Sept. 20 of this year, that tally stood at 133, according to a recent Stifel report . “The number of early-stage companies going public has just exploded over the course of the last five-plus years,” general partner Jamie Brush told Endpoints News in 2021. “So the opportunity set for early-stage companies where Frazier wants to be investing has really increased on the public side.” The biotech IPO market cratered soon after that unveiling. Since then, initial public offerings have been few and far between, though there’s been a string of debuts this fall and more interest-rate cuts could be a positive signal for the market going forward. Follow-on offerings, meanwhile, have had a “ very strong year ,” according to Stifel. Frazier’s strategy Frazier has five main strategies for the fund. The first is “fallen angels,” which Frazier has described as companies that have “fallen out of favor but have promising assets,” like BridgeBio and Immunovant. Bain Capital Life Sciences, which just raised a $3 billion fourth fund, employs a similar strategy . Another bucket is “proprietary information,” in which Frazier gets data that are not publicly available, as it has done in the case of Rocket Pharmaceuticals and Mirum Pharmaceuticals. The third is “structured terms” or “creative” deals. The firm also invests in companies that are newly public like CG Oncology, which had the largest biotech IPO of the year at $380 million in January . And the final strategy is “off-the-beaten path,” or companies that are “lesser known” such as Egetis Therapeutics and Chinook Therapeutics. Novartis bought Chinook in a deal worth up to $3.5 billion last year. Frazier has said its public fund portfolio companies have secured a dozen FDA approvals, including Acadia’s Daybue, bluebird’s three gene therapies, Iovance’s Amtagvi and Phathom’s Voquezna. Some companies have been acquired, including Iveric Bio, which sold to Astellas for $5.9 billion ; Reata’s $7.3 billion exit to Biogen; Alpine Immune Sciences’ $4.9 billion sale to Vertex; and Sierra Oncology’s $1.9 billion exit to GSK. On the venture side, Frazier last disclosed a $987 million life sciences fund in March 2022.

Both GreenLight and Egetis pointed out that they hadn't accepted an offer yet. While biotech M&A may have cooled down over the past year, no one has told GreenLight Biosciences or Egetis Therapeutics, which are both mulling takeover offers. RNA-focused GreenLight announced yesterday that it has received an offer from VC firm Fall Line Capital’s Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire all outstanding stock of the biotech for 60 cents per share. GreenLight— which spreads itself across vaccines and therapies for humans as well as agricultural solutions—only went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in February 2022. The merger agreement valued the company at $1.2 billion and GreenLight’s stock hit a high of over $12 per share in the following weeks. But it’s been dropping ever since, with a closing price Thursday of just 43 cents. Still, the biotech emphasized that no sale has been agreed yet, with the company’s board of directors due to “carefully evaluate Fall Line’s indication of interest within the context of the ongoing review of various alternatives and in consultation with any financial and legal advisors it may retain.” GreenLight ended 2022 with $68.1 million in cash and equivalents. Despite pausing its gene therapy program for sickle cell anemia and cutting 25% of staff in October 2022 to save money, the company still expects reserves to run dry by June. The biotech had already announced it was looking at a range of measures to eke out its runway, including “further management of program spending, additional platform licensing collaborations and potential further financing activities.” Even with human health ambitions now limited to preclinical vaccine candidates for pan-sarbecovirus and shingles, as well as a cancer vaccine collab with EpiVax, it’s not surprising the company is open to external offers. Less is known about Egetis’ offer. The biotech released a concise note yesterday responding to “existing rumors” by confirming that the company “has ongoing discussions with certain external parties regarding a potential acquisition.” Again, Egetis was keen to stress that no offer has yet been agreed. The Swedish company’s lead product is Emcitate, which is in phase 2 trials for Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that impacts a child's cognition, mobility and overall health and for which there is currently no available treatment. Egetis plans to submit a request for EU approval in the second quarter of the year based on existing clinical data.

Shares of the Sweden-based rare disease biotech Egetis Therapeutics skyrocketed on Thursday afternoon as the company said it’s engaged in “ongoing discussion” with external parties regarding a “potential acquisition.” Egetis confirmed rumors with a statement on Thursday while noting that there is no certainty that a takeover offer will be made. Nonetheless, the possibility of an acquisition has shot up Egetis’ share price. By the afternoon on Thursday, its stock price was {$EGTX.ST} up over 38%. An Egetis spokesperson told Endpoints News in an email that it has no further comments. Unlock this story instantly and join 163,900+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.