Modest interest in Human Safety!?

We have previously highlighted that most European venture capital funded therapeutic companies are acquired after receiving less than EUR 45M in venture capital funding.

It also appears that companies are acquired either before EUR 10M have been invested or after an investment in the range EUR 20-30M (figure below), possibly overlapping with a peak of M&A’s at the stage of Preclinical (11 of 43) and Phase II (23 of 43)!

The next peak in the figure below is after an investment of more than EUR 50M and again the majority stage is Phase II. Does this observation indicate that if you invest in interesting biology, and fail in Phase II, you will have the opportunity to invest more and with success try again in a new Phase II?

At Sunstone we think that is the case. We prefer opportunities with a broader investment thesis and we are hesitant about single assets with binary outcomes in Phase II.

When investing EUR 20-30M you should allow for the opportunity to learn something!

And as a curious side comment, it is interesting that only 6 out of the M&A’s were made after Phase I. Apparently human safety does not create sufficient value to cause an M&A 🙂

What do you think?
Let us know in our feed on LinkedIn:

5 latest press releases

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Teitur Trophics (“Teitur”), a biotech company dedicated to developing new treatments for patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, today announces the completion of a €28M Series A financing. The financing was co-led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures and...

Galecto Completes Enrollment in Phase 1b_2a GULLIVER-2 Trial of its Selective, Oral Galectin-3 Inhibitor GB1211 in Liver Cirrhosis

BOSTON, March 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galecto, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLTO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel treatments for fibrosis and cancer, today announced it has completed enrollment in Parts 2 and 3 of its ongoing 3-part...

Sunstone Life Science Ventures is looking for a Student Assistant

No longer accepting applications We are looking for a student to join our team for approximately 8 hours a week. As part of the team, you will play a pivotal role in the management of our deal flow, which lies in the order of 400-500 opportunities every year....

Sunstone announce new investment in immuno-oncology company STipe Therapeutics

Sunstone Life Science Ventures today announce it has invested in new portfolio company Stipe Therapeutics ApS (“STipe”), an immuno-oncology company dedicated to developing novel cancer therapeutics based on its first class drugs modulating the STING pathway.

Zealand Pharma achieves primary and all key secondary endpoints in pediatric Phase 3 trial with dasiglucagon for severe hypoglycemia

Zealand Pharma A/S (“Zealand”) (Nasdaq: ZEAL), a Copenhagen-based biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of innovative peptide-based medicines, announces positive results in the pediatric Phase 3 trial with dasiglucagon for severe hypoglycemia...

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