InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.
Venture investments into biopharma and medtech continued their 2024 upswing during the third quarter, according to a new report from J.P. Morgan. Biopharma startups raised $6.6 billion in venture investments during that quarter, and while that’s slightly down from Q3 2023, the year-to-date deals so far are greater than 2023. The investment bank estimates that overall venture investment in biopharma will hit about $27.7 billion for the year, surpassing last year’s $23.5 billion and reversing the slide in value since 2021.. One item of note, however, is that total deal volume is down–but round sizes have gotten bigger.
On the medtech side, there was a total of $5.1 billion in venture investments in the sector last quarter. Medtech investments totaled $16.1 billion so far in 2024 and J.P. Morgan’s analysts expect total investment to reach $21.5 billion for the year, surpassing last year’s $16.9 billion by nearly 30%. Check sizes for medtech investments remained on the smaller end, with most rounds being under $50 million.
This Startup Has A New Way To Quit Smoking. Will This Be The One That Works?
Six years ago, in a townhouse in Santa Monica, Mario Danek began tinkering on a device to help cigarette smokers quit. After buying nebulizers, syringes, gaskets, battery packs, electrical firmware and pharmaceutical-grade nicotine liquid, Danek—who had recently sold his stake in a vaporizer company—took everything apart and hacked together a functional prototype.
It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. The first device had a “Frankenstein look,” says the 39-year-old Danek. “I used a syringe as a liquid vessel and there were a lot of external wires because I’m not good at soldering.”
Danek brought the prototype to Gregg Smith, founder of Evolution Venture Capital in New York, and he was intrigued enough to cut Danek a check along with San Francisco-based hedge fund Poseidon for $500,000—and Qnovia was born.
The company, which is based in Virginia, has since raised $35 million (from investors that include Blue Ledge Capital, DG Ventures and Vice Ventures) at an estimated $350 million valuation. Now Qnovia is hoping to become the newest player in the $3 billion (global annual sales) nicotine replacement therapy market—but can’t start selling its device in the U.S. (or booking revenue) until it clears the Food and Drug Administration.
Qnovia was approved for an investigational new drug application by the regulator in October and plans to start human clinical trials before the end of the year. If it gets FDA approval, it will become the first federally approved prescription treatment for smoking cessation on the market in nearly two decades.
Read the whole story
Pipeline & Deal Updates
Pain Management: The FDA has approved Roxybond, an oxycodone pill from Protega Pharmaceuticals that has been designed to prevent crushing, cutting or other forms of manipulation to mitigate the risk of it being abused.
Sustainability: Antheia, which is using fermentation to manufacture drug ingredients that are normally produced agriculturally, announced its first commercial delivery this week. (Read our profile of the company here.)
Neuroscience: Abbvie will be acquiring Alaida Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on central nervous system diseases, in a $1.4 billion deal.
Molecular Glue Degraders: Monte Rosa therapeutics signed a collaboration deal with Novartis to advance the development of its molecular degraders for immune-mediated conditions. Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will make a $150 million upfront payment to Monte Rosa, plus up to $2.1 billion in milestone payments plus royalties.
Kidney Transplants: Paragonix Technologies received FDA clearance for its KidneyVault system, which helps to protect and preserve kidneys while they are being transported.
Heart Disease: Innoventric, which is developing a prosthetic to treat a heart condition called tricuspid regurgitation, announced it has raised a $28.5 million series B round led by RA Capital management.
Fibrosis: Agomab, which is developing treatments for patients with different types of fibrosis, announced it has raised an $89 million series D round.
UTIs: The FDA has approved Iterium Therapeutics’ drug Orlynvah for the treatment of certain types of urinary tract infections.
This Startup Is Moving The Egg Donation Market Beyond College Students
“The best time to freeze your eggs is when you are young and can least afford to pay for it,” says Lauren Makler, founder and CEO of Cofertility, a Los Angeles startup with a novel model that addresses three weaknesses in the fertility business, which plays a part in about 100,000 (2.5%) of U.S. births a year. The first two problems, as she suggests, are timing and cost: Women traditionally haven’t sought pricey fertility services until they’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to get pregnant and are well past 30, by which time each cycle of egg retrieval produces fewer eggs healthy enough to use. That’s why more women who want children—eventually—are freezing their eggs years in advance. But the retrieval procedure and the hormones it requires can cost $10,000 or more, plus another $500 or $1,000 a year to store frozen eggs, making it unaffordable for most young women—particularly when few employers cover the cost of egg freezing before a woman experiences infertility.
The third issue addressed by Cofertility’s new model: the supply of donor eggs. Some women—including those rendered infertile by cancer or other medical conditions—need donor eggs. For women 40 or older, using a donor dramatically increases the chance an implanted embryo will lead to a baby, tripling it by age 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest annual report on assisted reproductive technology. Cofertility tackles all these issues by allowing young women to freeze their eggs and store them for up to 10 years for free if they agree to donate half of the eggs retrieved. “All we’re saying is let’s leave out the cash compensation part and enable this woman to keep half of the eggs for her own future,’’ says Makler.
Read more here.
Other Healthcare News
Humana Reports $480 Million Profit Amid Rising Costs And Medicare Enrollment
How Health Officials Investigate Foodborne Outbreaks Like E. Coli From Quarter Pounders
Alignment Healthcare Still Losing Money Even As Medicare Enrollment Rises
Eli Lilly Stock Dives On Disappointing Earnings, Zepbound Sales
Salad Kits Linked To Potentially Contaminated Poultry: Here Are All The Recent Listeria Warnings
Across Forbes
What Else We are Reading
A man was wheeled into surgery to harvest his organs. Weeks later, he left the hospital alive (CNN)
More Men Are Getting Vasectomies Since Roe Was Overturned (Scientific American)
Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu (KFF)
Read the full article here