Aug. 10 Quick Takes: Karuna parlays data into year’s largest follow-on, at $750M 

Karuna Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:KRTX) parlayed its standout schizophrenia data and a stock at an all-time high into an upsized $750 million follow-on Tuesday that far exceeded the company’s $600 million target and marked the largest such offering of the year, according to BioCentury’s BCIQ database. Karuna sold 3.5 million shares at $215 per share, an 11% discount to the stock’s close of $241.19 on Monday, before the deal was announced. Karuna’s shares climbed 13% to $258.89 on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Jefferies underwrote the deal along with Stifel, Guggenheim Securities, RBC Capital Markets, JMP Securities and Wedbush PacGrow. The financing bumps the $570 million raise by argenx S.E. (Euronext:ARGX; NASDAQ:ARGX) in March to No. 2.

A year after raising an OrbiMed-led $90 million crossover round, hematology company Disc Medicine Inc. has found a path to NASDAQ via a reverse merger with Gemini Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GMTX). Disc has commitments from a syndicate led by Access Biotechnology for a $53.5 million financing that will bring the merged company’s cash to $175 million for runway into 2025. The syndicate includes OrbiMed, Atlas Venture, 5AM Ventures, Novo Holdings A/S, Arix Bioscience, Rock Springs Capital and Janus Henderson Investors. Disc shareholders will own about 72% of the combined company, with Gemini shareholders holding 28%...