Axatilimab-csfr

Syndax Pharmaceuticals posted a second-quarter net loss of $71.8 million ($0.83 per share), exceeding last year’s $68.1 million loss, even as revenue from key therapies soared. Sales of Revuforj jumped 43% over the prior quarter, driven by expanding use in the KMT2A patient segment and increased re-treatment after transplantation. The company’s newly launched drug Niktimvo also delivered robust growth in its first full quarter in the US market, adding significantly to revenue gains. Syndax finished the period with $517.9 million in cash and investments, a buffer management says will support its path to profitability. Operating expenses reached $107.3 million for the quarter, with full-year 2025 costs projected between $370 million and $390 million. Despite the wider loss, analysts remain bullish: the stock enjoys 13 “buy” ratings, one “hold,” and a median 12-month target price of $33.50—about 70% above its August 1 close of $9.98. Syndax is betting on continued sales momentum and stable expenses to move toward profitability, even as short-term losses grow.

Royalty deals have become the go-to financing tool this summer as biotechs seek out any available funding sources, with Aquestive Therapeutics’ deal with RTW on Thursday the latest example. That activity hit its stride during a two-week stretch in July when KKR took a majority stake in HealthCare Royalty Partners (HCRx) and OrbiMed beefed up its investment with the launch of another $1.8 billion royalty-focused fund. XOMA Royalty snapped up two biotechs. Amid the years-long biotech slump, nascent commercial companies have been forced to weigh their options, and getting near-term funding that helps them stay afloat in exchange for pay-outs on future drug sales has become an increasingly appealing choice. “Do you want to continue to bank the royalty income over the next five, 10 years?” said MacroGenics CEO Eric Risser. “Or do you want to potentially accelerate the payments and bring in cash that can support other parts of the business that potentially have more promise? That’s the nature of biotech investing.” The Maryland biotech had little more than a year of runway heading into the summer, and it was implementing cost-saving measures. Then, in June, the biotech got $70 million upfront from Sagard Healthcare Partners for the royalties to Zynyz, the Merkel cell carcinoma drug marketed by Incyte. MacroGenics will lose out on $70 million in the long run as a result of the deal. The company’s stock price $MGNX closed up 13% on Wednesday after Risser was promoted to CEO, but is down 49% year-to-date. Biotechs’ need for alternative funding options has been a boon for investment funds and royalty aggregators . Simultaneously, it has led to a maturation of the deal type, making royalty bets more attractive than ever before, and a route that many biotechs will likely continue pursuing, a dozen industry insiders told Endpoints News . Analysts have an overwhelmingly positive view of the 10 royalty financing deals disclosed in the first half of 2025, saying they provide strength to near-term balance sheets and reduce cash overhangs. Genfit’s deal with HCRx in January, for example, is viewed as a “prudent strategic decision,” per Leerink analysts. And Stifel analysts described Regenxbio’s deal with HCRx in May as having “favorable terms” using a “‘good debt’ instrument.” Royalty deals have been around for decades, though largely in the background. But as the industry’s pandemic-era buoyancy dissipated and funding dried up, the financing vehicle is now in the forefront. “The model has finally shifted where it’s become a very attractive and desirable opportunity for companies as a way to raise capital,” said XOMA Royalty Chief Investment Officer Brad Sitko. XOMA bought two companies last week to get access to more drug candidates, bringing its total bucket of partnered assets to more than 130, according to CEO Owen Hughes. Its stock $XOMA is up about 18% so far this year. Back in 2006, investors looking to forge royalty financing deals would have had to “knock on doors and sell the concept,” said Todd Davis, CEO of the royalty aggregator Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Last week, Ligand raised its full-year revenue guidance after royalty revenue in the second quarter spiked 57% year over year. “Even 10 years ago, it was almost a missionary sale,” said Clarke Futch, CEO of HCRx. “People hadn’t really done a royalty deal before, so the management team had to go convince their board and then they had to talk to the shareholders about it.” HCRx is now working with repeat customers and getting more inbound inquiries. The firm did $1 billion in transaction volume in the first half of 2025, a “record pace” for the company, Futch said. Both public and private biotechs have struggled in a weak market for three years running. And with high interest rates and an ongoing six-month IPO drought , much-needed capital is hard to come by these days. “The credit side has gotten more expensive. Certain guys have left the market. The ones that are out there are charging more,” said Ali Satvat, KKR’s co-head of healthcare. “So you look at this royalty piece, it’s a really interesting way for a lot of these mid-sized companies to raise capital, maintain their opportunities in their pipeline and live to fight another day.” Satvat estimates royalty and royalty-related debt comprise about 5% of the overall biopharma capital market, meaning there’s plenty of opportunity for more royalty deals. “As this market has become a bit more mature, companies are seeking this capital quite frequently as an alternative to an equity financing,” said Matthew Rizzo, head of OrbiMed’s royalty and credit team. There were two royalty deals in 2018, according to a Raymond James tally. That quickly changed. In 2022, there were 20. In 2024, that ticked up to two dozen. In the first half of this year, there were 10. From 2020 to 2024, the aggregate value of royalty financing deals was $24.6 billion, according to a report published in March by the law firm Gibson Dunn. Royalty financing doesn’t require an IPO, M&A deal or some other form of exit for investors to get their money back. They just need medicines to be successful on the market. “The demand is high — some would say insatiable — and this is a very good form of financing for counterparties because of the degree of alignment with the assets,” said Ligand’s Davis. “We’re not trying to get an exit three years from now. We want to exit with the royalties over an extended period of time.” No matter the environment, royalty financing is here to stay, said Satvat. “In this particular market, we think royalties are very relevant, but we actually think there’s an all-weather aspect to royalties,” Satvat said. With more companies seeking royalty deals to buoy their businesses, and more investors and companies deploying this model, the deals are getting more competitive. “Earlier on in the industry, you might get fewer bids and there’d be a wider spread of bids,” said Gibson Dunn partner Todd Trattner, who’s worked on multiple biopharma royalty deals. “Now you’re getting more rational economic analysis and more competition that really is driving a more efficient market.” Fourteen parties were interested in the royalties for Nuvation Bio’s kinase inhibitor taletrectinib, according to Nuvation CEO David Hung. The New York biotech received multiple term sheets in the “very competitive” process before going with a $150 million royalty interest deal with Sagard that was announced in March, Hung said. The biotech could have gotten to profitability without a royalty financing, but it “makes that path to profitability even clearer,” Hung said. The company plans to use the money to expand its portfolio and ink more business development deals, like the one with AnHeart Therapeutics that brought it taletrectinib. Shortly after the Sagard deal, taletrectinib was approved. It’s now marketed as Ibtrozi for patients with ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer. Syndax Pharmaceuticals took a different approach to its royalty deal, choosing to wait until its cancer drug axatilimab received FDA approval. The company then signed up for a $350 million arrangement with Royalty Pharma for Niktimvo. The goal was a royalty deal to help fund the commercialization of its medicines and get to profitability. Syndax CFO Keith Goldan said the company was “not interested in selling equity at the prices” the company was trading at. Another option would have been convertible debt, “but that encumbers the whole company,” he said. Niktimvo had sales of $36 million in the second quarter, double the Street’s consensus of $18 million, according to an analyst note from TD Cowen’s Phil Nadeau. “20/20 hindsight is often illuminating,” Goldan said. “In this case, it’s just proving the value of the deal that we did.”