Public Company Edition: UroGen raised $120m in a private placement of ordinary shares. Also, Verrica entered into a debt financing for up to $125m upon approval of Ycanth for molluscum contagiosum and job cuts were announced by Homology, Mersana, Infinity and others.

Many gene therapies companies have faced R&D and financial problems this year but the longer term potential of the field and low prices might tempt big pharma into deals.

Restructuring Updates: Homology implemented modest job cuts as it ended a gene therapy trial, while ProQR revealed its second round of layoffs this year and Synthetic Biologics shifted focus to oncolytic virus pipeline. Also, Bolt, MacroGenics and others deprioritized programs in their Q2 updates.

BMN 307 for phenylketonuria was put on a clinical hold in September due to liver cancer observed in mice and was expected to lift in Q1 of 2022, but the US FDA has requested additional preclinical studies.