You’re not going to hear a private biotech trumpeting a down round as they announce a new batch of funding, but industry experts say the broader market trend has seeped into the sector, while financings as a whole fell 24% last year.

你不会听到私人生物技术公司在宣布新一批资金时大肆吹嘘下一轮融资，但行业专家表示，更广泛的市场趋势已经渗透到该行业，而去年融资总额下降了24%。

That’s because a down round used to ring red-hot alarm bells. But as valuations change, investors say the meaning of a down round might, too.

这是因为一轮低谷常常会敲响红色的警钟。但随着估值的变化，投资者表示，下跌一轮的意义也可能存在。

The term is used to refer to a financing round raised by a company that is offered at a lower share price compared to a previous round or time period. Typically, a company’s valuation is expected to rise with each subsequent financing. But in business, anything can happen—like a historic global pandemic, for example..

该术语用于指公司以较前一轮或一段时间更低的股价进行的融资。通常，随着每次后续融资，公司的估值都会上升。但在商业领域，任何事情都可能发生，例如历史性的全球大流行。。

In the second quarter of this year, the proportion of down private financing rounds across all sectors hit its highest peak in seven years, according to data collected by industry law firm Cooley. The firm reported that 21% of all the venture financing rounds it handled for the quarter were down, the most in any quarter since the second quarter of 2016.

根据行业律师事务所Cooley收集的数据，今年第二季度，各行业私人融资回合的比例达到了七年来的最高水平。该公司报告称，该季度它处理的所有风险融资回合中有21%下降，这是自2016年第二季度以来的最高季度。

Meanwhile, flat rounds represented just 2% of deals during the quarter, down from 11% in the first quarter and aligning with numbers seen during 2021 and early 2022..

与此同时，本季度持平交易仅占交易量的2%，低于第一季度的11%，与2021年和2022年初的数字持平。。

While not specific to biotech, the report highlights an important trend that Cooley Partner Josh Seidenfeld doesn’t think is going away anytime soon. Seidenfeld is also Cooley’s global chair of digital health and has handled more than 350 venture capital financings with an aggregate deal value of more than $5 billion over the past five years, including Cellares’ $255 million series C this year.

虽然不是针对生物技术，但该报告强调了一个重要趋势，Cooley合伙人JoshSeidenfeld认为这一趋势不会很快消失。塞登菲尔德（Seidenfeld）也是库利（Cooley）的数字健康全球主席，在过去五年中处理了350多笔风险投资融资，总交易价值超过50亿美元，其中包括Celles今年2.55亿美元的C系列。

He told Fierce Biotech that he thinks down rounds are a trend that could be settling in as just a part of the venture community..

他告诉Fierce Biotech，他认为轮减是一种趋势，可能只是风险投资社区的一部分。。

While it’s difficult to pin down biotech-specific valuation data, the overall trend shows a massive drop in financings.

虽然很难确定生物技术特定的估值数据，但总体趋势显示融资大幅下降。

After two record-setting years, private biotech financings fell 24% from the highs of 2021. In total, private biotech investors put down $21.7 billion in 2022, compared to 2021’s $28.5 billion, according to Evaluate Vantage.

在创纪录的两年之后，私人生物技术融资从2021年的高点下降了24%。根据Evaluate Vantage的数据，2022年私人生物技术投资者总共投资217亿美元，而2021年为285亿美元。

“Valuations—in my judgment—were way ahead of themselves.” — Les Funtleyder, E Squared Capital Management

“在我看来，估值远远超过了估值。”-Les Funtleyder，E Squared Capital Management

The number of fundraises also dropped 25%, with 381 rounds last year versus 514 in 2021. Only 65 rounds equaled or eclipsed $100 million in 2022, compared to 93 in 2021, but still rising above 2020’s 63.

筹款数量也下降了25%，去年为381轮，2021年为514轮。2022年只有65轮等于或超过1亿美元，而2021年为93轮，但仍高于2020年的63轮。

After so much money was thrown into the industry, conditions deteriorated, creating poor prospects for going public, sparse M&A activity and a pullback in venture capital investment followed by mass layoffs—all impacts that are still being felt today.

在向该行业投入如此多资金后，情况恶化，上市前景不佳，并购活动稀少，风险投资减少，随后大规模裁员，所有这些影响至今仍在产生。

“My initial thought is it’s a return to reality,” Les Funtleyder, healthcare portfolio manager at E Squared Capital Management, told Fierce Biotech. “Valuations—in my judgment—were way ahead of themselves.”

E Squared Capital Management的医疗保健投资组合经理Les Funtleyder告诉Fierce Biotech：“我最初的想法是这是回归现实。”。“在我看来，估值远远超过了它们。”

Funtleyder called the biotech investing highs of the pandemic a “once-in-a-decade bubble” and said returning to normal after living through such a time can feel like a letdown.

Funtleyder称这场大流行的生物技术投资高点是“十年一次的泡沫”，并表示经历了这样的时间后恢复正常可能会感到失望。

“It’s sort of the hangover, which is why you get down rounds,” said Funtleyder, who authored “Healthcare Investing: Profiting from the New World of Pharma, Biotech, and Health Care Services” and previously served as the chief financial officer for Applied Therapeutics.

Funtleyder说：“这是一种宿醉，这就是为什么你会陷入困境。”Funtleyder撰写了《医疗保健投资：从制药、生物技术和医疗保健服务的新世界中获利》，之前曾担任Applied Therapeutics的首席财务官。

Lindy Fishburne, founder and managing partner of early-stage fund Breakout Ventures, said prices are just settling back down.

早期基金突破风险投资公司（Breakout Ventures）的创始人兼管理合伙人林迪·菲什伯恩（LindyFishburne）表示，价格刚刚稳定下来。

“If you really look at the macro-economic view over the last five years, the pricing that occurred was the anomaly,” Fishburne said. “And now we’re coming back to or reverting to the mean.”

菲什伯恩说：“如果你真的看看过去五年的宏观经济观点，那么所发生的定价就是异常现象。”。“现在我们又回到了平均水平。”

Losing the stigmaIn a normal market, a down round occurs because a company doesn’t hit milestones they were expected to hit—a big, bright red flag. But in a down market, the signal isn’t the same.

在一个正常的市场上，由于公司没有达到预期的里程碑（一个巨大的、明亮的红旗），因此出现了一轮下跌。但在低迷的市场中，信号并不相同。

Instead, a down round can become a commentary on the broader environment instead of the individual company, Cooley’s Seidenfeld said, adding that even biotechs with great data and strong leaders aren’t necessarily able to raise financing on “premium” terms in this market. Ultimately, companies with strong science may end up raising a flat round—where the company’s valuation stays the same as the round before—or a modest down round..

Cooley的Seidenfeld说，相反，一轮下跌可能会成为对更广泛环境的评论，而不是对单个公司的评论，并补充说，即使是拥有出色数据和强大领导者的生物技术公司也不一定能够在这个市场上以“溢价”条款筹集资金。最终，科学性强的公司可能会发起一轮平仓，公司估值与前一轮持平，或是适度下跌。。

“When the market has those adjustments occurring across the board, it does lose some of that stigma associated with it,” Seidenfeld said.

塞登菲尔德说：“当市场全面进行这些调整时，它确实会失去一些与之相关的耻辱感。”。

In the current environment, a strong company raising a flat or down round isn’t reflective of a company’s quality, according to Fishburne.

Fishburne表示，在目前的环境下，一家实力强大的公司进行一轮平仓或低迷的融资并不能反映公司的质量。

“You have a lot of very capable, very well run, really interesting companies that are building platforms and technologies of great value,” she explained. “And they’re being repriced right now, which is just a different context than ‘You kind of blew it.’”

她解释说：“你们有很多非常有能力、运作良好、非常有趣的公司，它们正在构建具有巨大价值的平台和技术。”。“他们现在正在重新定价，这与‘你搞砸了’的背景完全不同。”

Another trend is a rise in financing extensions, where a biotech snags some additional cash using the same terms as a previous round. ReCode Therapeutics just brought its series B total to $260 million and snagged some new investors this way. The $80 million round originally went down in 2021, followed by an extension of $120 million in summer of 2022, and now another $50 million has been tacked on..

另一个趋势是融资延期的增加，一家生物技术公司使用与前一轮相同的条件获得了一些额外的现金。ReCode Therapeutics刚刚将其B系列的总价值提高到2.6亿美元，并以这种方式吸引了一些新投资者。8000万美元最初于2021年下降，随后在2022年夏天延长了1.2亿美元，现在又增加了5000万美元。。

Rome Therapeutics did the same, adding $72 million and Big Pharma investors Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb, bringing the biotech’s series B haul to $149 million total.

罗马治疗公司（Rome Therapeutics）也做了同样的事情，增加了7200万美元，大型制药投资者强生（Johnson＆Johnson）和百时美施贵宝（Bristol-Myers Squibb）也增加了7200万美元，使生物技术公司的B系列总收入达到1.49亿美元。

Novo Holdings Senior Partner Naveed Siddiqi told Fierce Biotech: “We’re seeing a lot of extensions of existing rounds, where basically you get one new investor to come in at the price the last round was done as a flat on the same terms.”

Novo Holdings的高级合伙人纳维德·西迪奇（NaveedSiddiqi）对威猛生物科技（Fierce Biotech）表示：“我们看到了现有回合的许多延期，基本上你可以让一位新投资者以上一轮相同的价格以持平的价格进入。”

Because of the selective nature of deals occurring right now, Cooley’s Seidenfeld said companies may have to reach higher standards than before. As for investors, well, they can basically “name their price.”

由于目前交易的选择性，Cooley的Seidenfeld表示，公司可能必须达到比以前更高的标准。至于投资者，他们基本上可以“定价”

“When dollars are abundant, things can get sloppier. So, as an investor, this is an incredible market to be investing in,” Fishburne said.

菲什伯恩说：“当美元充裕时，事情可能会变得更加草率。因此，作为投资者，这是一个令人难以置信的投资市场。”。

When considering investing, Breakout Ventures wants to know where a company will fit into the market. The firm wants to see what a company plans to do with its money, what its milestones are, what technical and scientific derisking measures are being taken and what market validation the company expects to achieve with those dollars..

在考虑投资时，Breakout Ventures想知道一家公司将在哪里融入市场。该公司想知道一家公司计划用这笔钱做什么，它的里程碑是什么，正在采取什么技术和科学的衍生措施，以及公司希望用这些钱实现什么样的市场验证。。

Fishburne also looks at what a company pledged to do with its capital versus what actually happened with the money. While she acknowledged that there are bumps along the way and things don’t always go as planned, Fishburne said it’s important to assess how close a company was to its goals.

Fishburne还研究了一家公司承诺用其资本做什么，以及资金实际发生了什么。菲什伯恩承认，在这一过程中会遇到坎坷，事情并不总是按计划进行，但她表示，评估一家公司离目标有多近很重要。

Company leaders should also show that they’re aware of the market they’re in and address how they will run their business differently in a market of capital scarcity. Biotechs would be wise not to get hung up on current valuations and instead accept the anomalous price of the past, adjust to the current market conditions and get back to work, Fishburne advised..

公司领导还应该表明，他们了解自己所在的市场，并解决如何在资本稀缺的市场中以不同的方式经营业务。Fishburne建议，生物技术公司明智的做法是不要对当前的估值感到不安，而是接受过去异常的价格，根据当前的市场状况进行调整，然后重新开始工作。。

A crescendoThe biopharma world—or creative biosciences as Fishburne calls it—has an advantage over many other industries trying to raise capital. The nature of the sector gives companies the ability to leverage non-dilutive grants, she explained. Non-dilutive financing is funding that doesn’t require giving up equity or ownership, such as government and research grants..

Fishburne称之为“生物制药世界”或“创意生物科学”的高潮比许多其他试图筹集资金的行业都具有优势。她解释说，该行业的性质使公司有能力利用非稀释性赠款。非稀释性融资是指不需要放弃股权或所有权的资金，如政府和研究资助。。

Ideally, companies build up their capital stack over time with both non-dilutive grants and investing dollars to help cushion market blows, the Breakout Ventures founder recommended.

这位Breakout Ventures创始人建议，理想情况下，公司会通过非稀释性赠款和投资资金逐步积累资本，以帮助缓冲市场冲击。

While Cooley’s Seidenfeld hasn’t yet seen the overall numbers for the third quarter, he suspects the trends will be consistent with the second quarter, with very high deal selectivity and deals taking longer to get done.

虽然库利（Cooley）的塞登菲尔德（Seidenfeld）还没有看到第三季度的总体数字，但他怀疑趋势将与第二季度一致，交易选择性非常高，交易完成时间更长。

“I don’t think we’re getting away from the current environment that we’re in anytime soon,” Seidenfeld said.

塞登菲尔德说：“我认为我们不会很快摆脱目前的环境。”。

“In my experience, bear markets don’t necessarily end in a crescendo,” E Squared’s Funtleyder said, speculating on the eventual end of the prolonged down market. “They sort of seem to end in indifference, like when nobody cares anymore.”

“根据我的经验，熊市不一定会以高潮结束，”E Squared的Funtleyder表示，他在猜测长期下跌的市场最终会结束。“他们似乎以漠不关心而告终，就像没有人关心一样。”

Despite the challenging economic conditions, the science, technology and innovation investors are seeing is the strongest it’s ever been, according to Fishburne, adding that she hopes to see more efficient raises happening toward the end of this year.

Fishburne表示，尽管经济形势严峻，但投资者看到的科学、技术和创新是有史以来最强的，她补充说，她希望在今年年底看到更有效的加薪。

Funtleyder agrees, highlighting the cardiometabolic, rare diseases and neuropsychiatry spaces as specific innovative pockets fostering lots of excitement.

Funtleyder同意这一观点，他强调了心脏代谢、罕见疾病和神经精神病学领域是促进兴奋的特定创新领域。

“It’s not all gloom and doom,” Funtleyder said. “Under the surface, things are percolating.”

Funtleyder说：“这不全是悲观和厄运。”。“在表面之下，事物正在渗透。”