Genzyme Corp.

Biotech venture capitalists are embracing risk again, signaling a reversal from the past few years. VCs are placing more bets on flashy new biotech opportunities in the first quarter of 2026. About 65% of investments by a group of the most active private biotech investors went into new portfolio companies, according to a quarterly report from bankers at William Blair. It’s a stark contrast from the previous several years of belt-tightening, in which investors’ dollars were focused on existing portfolio bets — a lower-risk strategy. “The quality of deals we’re seeing now, the level of innovation, it’s as high as I’ve seen it in the last couple years,” Samsara BioCapital’s Mike Dybbs said in an interview. “And the deals that we’re seeing are reasonably and very attractively priced. It’s that combination of ‘OK, portfolio is in good shape’ and this flood of really interesting, exciting companies.” Samsara has opened its checkbook to Colorado obesity biotech Ambrosia Biosciences, antibody-drug conjugates startup Sidewinder Therapeutics, and protein degrader EpiBiologics so far this year. Dybbs said he and other investors feel like they can’t keep up with the deal flow. It’s a stark contrast to last year, when “a lot of funds were in sort of survival mode.” Money is also returning to investors on the strength of more than $31 billion in biopharma acquisitions in the first quarter. Drugmakers have already laid out more than $6 billion in M&A deals in the first week of the second quarter. “We do see people recycling money from those M&A proceeds into new deals, and as a result, for top-tier deals and highly sought-after deals, you see higher valuations, so larger step-ups from previous rounds,” Forbion’s Wouter Joustra said. The Dutch firm made five new investments and backed one existing portfolio company in the first quarter, he said. Sanofi Ventures’ Jason Hafler sang a similar tune, noting he’s seeing more competition among investors vying to get in on new biotech funding rounds. The industry is also moving back toward “that normal status quo,” Hafler said in an interview. “Institutional investors still need to deploy capital over three to four years, so you’re seeing people who have been waiting to see what the world looks like go back to deploying capital,” Hafler said. Sanofi Ventures operates a bit differently in that it doesn’t have the same investment cycles that are expected from a traditional VC. The firm reports to its pharma parent, and not a cadre of limited partners who want their initial checks turned into bigger payouts. Sanofi Ventures backed 14 companies last year, Hafler said. The pace will likely slow down this year as corporate VC firms historically step up during a downturn to fill gaps left by traditional VCs. With the biotech industry on the upswing, CVCs tend not to have the same deal cadence. While private biotech startups currently have a healthier outlook than in the past few years, not everybody is in the clear. There’s still a “haves and have nots” dichotomy, SR One leader Simeon George said in an interview. Companies with experienced management teams, a pharma partnership under their belt, and a good bench of investors in place are feeling relatively secure. But those without a partnership and a product-market fit are continuing to run into hurdles. SR One has made a suite of investments lately, including in AI-driven Charm Therapeutics, cardiovascular startup Immutrin, China-derived COPD biotech AirNexis and another China-associated company called Corxel, which is creating an oral GLP-1. For companies with a “much clearer sense of what the path forward is,” investors are crowding around the deal table. George noted an “element of FOMO that’s creeping in a little bit.” Joustra said Forbion’s large investment peers in the US and Europe are very active on new biotech deals right now as well, and that’s leading to competition among check writers looking to get in on the most attractive biotech startups. “One of the reasons why we have to lead a lot of our deals [is] because otherwise it’s difficult to get allocation,” Joustra said. “If we are [the] lead investor, we are pretty much controlling the syndicate and the term sheets.” Some biotechs are benefiting by getting “quite heavily oversubscribed” funding hauls, Joustra said, meaning the companies raised more than they initially sought. Those oversubscriptions, and a continuing tide of $100 million-plus rounds, are enabling private biotechs to get to clinical data before an IPO. “These aren’t 2021 deals where we’ve got some really cool science out of MIT, we’re going to fund this to an IPO, [and] they’re preclinical and someone else will take it from there,” Dybbs said. Some more advanced clinical-stage companies are starting to line up for IPOs, though, as the waters have warmed up a bit. SR One-backed Avalyn Pharma, in Phase 2 with inhaled versions of approved pulmonary fibrosis pills, filed for its Nasdaq listing on Wednesday night. Another SR One portfolio company, hair growth biotech Veradermics , went public earlier this winter. “We have a couple others potentially that are thinking about this path over the next number of months,” George said.

点击蓝字 关注我们 2026年4月1日，Cyclerion Therapeutics与Korsana Biosciences宣布达成最终合并协议。交易完成后，合并后的公司将更名为Korsana Biosciences，并计划在纳斯达克以“KRSA”代码交易。这起交易本质上是Korsana的借壳上市，同时伴随了一笔约3.8亿美元的私募融资，为即将到来的关键临床数据储备弹药。 “买壳”上市：Korsana的资本路径 本次交易的结构值得关注。根据协议，合并后的公司预计由原Korsana股东持有约98.5%的股权，原Cyclerion股东仅保留约1.5%。这实际上是Korsana通过反向并购实现上市融资的典型路径。 为支持此次合并，Korsana同步完成了超额认购的私募融资，从Fairmount和Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners领投的财团获得约3.8亿美元融资承诺，参与方包括General Atlantic、TCGX、Forbion、RA Capital Management、RTW Investments、Vivo Capital、Sanofi Ventures等顶级投资机构。 这笔资金预计将为合并后公司的运营提供支持至2029年，覆盖多项关键临床里程碑。交易已获两家公司董事会批准，预计于2026年第三季度完成。 KRSA-028：一款旨在“增效减毒”的下一代穿梭抗体 Korsana成立于2023年，是Paragon Therapeutics发现和开发资产后推出的第七家公司。Paragon是一家“药物发现工厂”模式的公司，专注于孵化具有差异化潜力的生物技术企业。 Korsana的核心资产是KRSA-028，一款靶向淀粉样蛋白β（Aβ）的下一代穿梭抗体，用于治疗阿尔茨海默病（AD）。该药采用专有的治疗性靶向（THETA™）平台，整合了临床验证的转铁蛋白受体（TfR1）和Fc工程技术，旨在改善抗体药物向大脑的递送效率，同时解决其他基于TfR1方法的局限性。 从临床定位看，KRSA-028的设计目标非常清晰：增加淀粉样蛋白斑块清除、降低淀粉样蛋白相关影像学异常（ARIA）和血液学不良事件的发生率，并通过低容量皮下给药途径优化便利性和依从性。 现有的Aβ抗体（如仑卡奈单抗）存在两大核心问题：一是需要频繁静脉输注，患者便利性差；二是ARIA副作用发生率高，限制了临床应用。KRSA-028试图通过改善脑部递送，在提升疗效的同时降低外周抗体暴露，从而减少副作用。如果这一设计能在临床中得到验证，它将有机会成为“同类最优”的AD治疗产品。 根据公司规划，合并后的实体预计将在2027年中期获得KRSA-028的1期健康志愿者数据，并在2027年底获得测量阿尔茨海默病患者淀粉样蛋白斑块清除的中期概念验证数据。 从“端”到“端”：一种新的药物开发模式 Korsana的崛起，背后是Paragon Therapeutics这一“药物发现工厂”模式的又一次验证。Paragon通过系统化的靶点筛选和抗体工程，孵化出具有差异化优势的资产，再通过资本运作推向临床。Korsana是其推出的第七家公司，此前已有多家成功上市或被收购。 Korsana还在推进一系列创新的THETA赋能疗法，用于治疗其他高未满足需求的神经退行性疾病，但具体靶点和适应症尚未披露。 结语 阿尔茨海默病药物研发的历史上，失败案例不计其数。Aβ假说曾几度濒临被证伪，直到仑卡奈单抗等药物的成功才重新点燃了行业信心。如今，赛道上的竞争正在从“有没有效”转向“能不能更好”——疗效更好、副作用更少、用药更方便。 KRSA-028正是瞄准这个方向。3.8亿美元的融资，说明资本愿意为这个“改进”买单。但真正的考验在于：它的穿梭技术能否真正转化为临床获益？降低ARIA的同时，会不会牺牲疗效？皮下给药的便利性能否弥补可能的剂量不足？ 声明：文章中的信息仅供一般参考之用，不可直接作为决策内容。 蒲公英资讯 | 更懂制药人 专注医药产业与行业技术； 提供深度资讯、专业咨询、媒体宣传与资源链接； 助力企业把握行业脉搏，链接产业价值。 欢迎合作交流：孟女士  18810836617 蒲 公 英 资 讯 END 点击名片  欢迎关注我们

Less than two months after emerging from stealth with $175 million in funding, neurodegenerative disease–focused Korsana Biosciences has charted a course to go public. The biotech on Wednesday said it has agreed to merge with Cyclerion Therapeutics in an all-stock deal. To support the reverse merger, Korsana has secured a $380-million private financing from a syndicate of investors led by Fairmount and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners. The capital will also help Korsana advance its lead asset, KRSA-028, through Phase I testing. The programme comprises an amyloid-beta–targeting mAb delivered via a brain-penetrant shuttle. By targeting transferrin receptor 1, the biotech's Therapeutic Targeting (THETA) technology acts as a biological transport system that can ferry therapeutic antibodies across the blood-brain barrier. The company expects safety results from healthy volunteers in mid-2027, with interim amyloid plaque clearance findings in Alzheimer’s patients due by the end of 2027.After the transaction closes, expected in the third quarter, Cyclerion shareholders are expected to own about 1.5% of the combined company, while those holding Korsana stock, including investors in the PIPE, will own about 98.5%. Post-merger, the company will operate as Korsana Biosciences and trade on NASDAQ under the ticker "KRSA."Between the PIPE and both companies' cash on-hand, Korsana has an operational runway extending into 2029.Founded in 2024, Korsana is the seventh company built around assets developed by Paragon. The startup raised $25 million in seed financing from Fairmount and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners before completing a $150-million private series A last September co-led by Wellington Management and TCGX, with participation by Sanofi Ventures, J.P. Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Foresite Capital and others.