Plus, news about Chai Discovery, Relay Therapeutics, Incannex Healthcare, PhoreMost, Epsilogen and LIFTT:
Ionis prices $500M offering: The veteran RNA biotech is offering 11.5 million shares $IONS at $43.50 apiece, almost $5.00 below Monday’s closing price. The Carlsbad, CA-based drugmaker has long relied on partners to commercialize its medicines but is attempting to launch its own treatments, with multiple late-stage programs in the works. The FDA is set to decide whether to approve Ionis’ olezarsen in familial chylomicronemia syndrome by Dec. 19.
Terns Pharmaceuticals eyes $125M offering: The same day that it shared positive data for its oral GLP-1, the biotech said it would seek $125 million in a public offering.
OpenAI invests in drug discovery: The ChatGPT maker is joining Thrive Capital and Dimension Capital to back Chai Discovery, which raised a total of $30 million, according to Bloomberg. The startup, which was founded less than a year ago, is using machine learning to predict biochemical molecule structures and unveiled its first open-source model.
Relay Therapeutics also tees up offering: After sharing early-stage breast cancer data on Monday morning, Relay went to investors with a $200 million public offering.
Incannex Healthcare forges up to $60M in financing: The funding, which comes from Arena Investors, will help the chronic disease biotech as it works on clinical trials across sleep apnea, generalized anxiety disorder and rheumatoid arthritis.
PhoreMost adds $12M to Series B: The Cambridge, UK-based startup previously closed the round in 2021. The total raise now surpasses $50 million. It’s working on new degraders in oncology and inflammatory diseases.
Epsilogen extends Series B with £12.5M: The London-based startup originally raised £30.75 million for the round in 2022. The new funding is expected to help fuel a proof-of-concept trial in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
The European Investment Bank and Italian VC firm LIFTT are jointly contributing to a €100M venture that will back 20 to 30 startups, including those in life sciences.