During the second quarter, biopharma financing reached $32.3bn, more than doubling Q1’s $13.8bn. The bulk of the fundraising was, like last quarter, from follow-on public offerings, which brought in $13.6bn or 42% of the Q2 total (see Exhibit 1). The stand-out of this group, and also the largest financing of the quarter was messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines firm Moderna Inc.’s $1.3bn public offering [See Deal]. The company will use the proceeds to begin manufacturing its mRNA-1273 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, ahead of a potential approval and launch.
Moderna is pursuing the rapid development and manufacture of mRNA-1273 in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute...
