Record-breaking financing for European public biotech companies in Q3 2019 but…

The third quarter of 2019 has been historical for European listed biotechs. The total amounts raised or secured by the 150+ listed companies under coverage reached 2168 mEUR, all categories included (equity issue, US IPO, warrants/equity lines, debt/non-dilutive sources). That makes this quarter likely the best ever...

However, this number hides a much less positive picture. Indeed, not one but two giant transactions occurred this quarter. The first one is the 960 mEUR invested in Galapagos (Belgium) in the form of equity by Gilead, for the transformational deal inked in July. The second one is the Nasdaq IPO of the largest European biotech company, Genmab (Denmark), for 518 mEUR. Altogether, these 2 transactions amounted for 68% of the total. Without these 2 transactions, 690 mEUR have been raised or secured, a much more modest figure, just in line with the recent numbers (-12.5% from Q2 2019 and -7.4% from Q3 2018).

The overall financing data are also now available on our homepage.

More details on the distribution by financing category is available for our service subscribers.