Is there a more capital-intensive and capital-sensitive entity than the early-stage biotech startup? Regulatory hurdles, clinical trials that last years, teams of scientists and lab technicians, building brick-and-mortar clinics, and millions in cash burned each quarter – all with your first dollar of revenue potentially years away.
A quote from the first article I wrote for Microdose. It’s been over a year since those good old days and not much has changed on the topic. If anything, the need for capital has become even more important.
The extended market funk and extremely depressed prices make it difficult to raise funds, a bit of bad timing since we’re entering the dog days between clinical trial phases when big headlines are hard to come by.
Which is why it could be important news that MindMed has quietly filed a prospectus with the SEC for a “mixed shelf” offering with proceeds of up to $200 million. A mixed shelf offering allows a company to “register a new issue of securities without having to sell the entire issue at once. The issuer can instead sell portions of the issue over a three-year period without re-registering the security or incurring penalties.”
It seems MindMed is prepping to raise some serious cash, something that might help comfort investors as they prepare for the stretch run of clinical trials. An additional $200 M would bring their cash reserves to over $300 M, a very comfortable position that would fund their operation for at least 2 years.
With the highly-anticipated results from MindMed’s big Phase 2 trial
coming up next week, this could be a move to prepare themselves for a bigger Phase 2b trial. Something that could kickstart both the firm and wider industry.
Stay tuned for more.
