NantKwest Inc. experienced the highest ever IPO valuation for a biotech company with no approved drugs with a valuation on the first day of public trading of $2.6B. Despite the risks of drug development, investments into mutual funds and exchange-traded funds with the word 'biotechnology' in their name reached $6.2B in the first half of 2015, compared to the $3.5B invested in all of 2014.
The U.S. general anesthesia drug market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 3.8% from 2015 to 2020, resulting in a market size of $2.0 billion up from $1.6 billion today.
Novo Holdings’ recent launch of a $165 million venture fund focused on tackling “superbugs†resistant to modern antibiotics demonstrates the paradigm shift occurring in Big Pharma. Novo’s Repair Impact Fund — Repair stands for Replenishing and Enabling the Pipeline for Anti-Infective Resistance — will invest $20 million to $40 million in start-ups and early stage companies in the United States and Europe that have new approaches to combat bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.