Nov. 1 Quick Takes: Clinical-stage OrsoBio debuts with in-licensed metabolic pipeline

Samsara BioCapital-incubated OrsoBio Inc. launched with a Phase IIa-ready ACC2 inhibitor for diabetes and fatty acid oxidation disorders, in-licensed from Shionogi & Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4507); a Phase I-stage, liver-targeted LXR inverse agonist for severe hypertriglyceridemia, familial hypercholesterolemia and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), acquired from Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG; mitochondrial protonophores in preclinical testing for severe lipodystrophies, licensed from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and Yale University; and an ACMSD inhibitor program for liver and kidney disorders, acquired from the Mitobridge unit of Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo:4503). The pipeline builds on scientific work from Yale’s Gerald Shulman, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Takanori Takebe, and Johan Auwerx from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Financing details were not disclosed.

Days after gaining a share price bump upon the disclosure of the first clinical readout from a Phase I/II trial of its ROS1 inhibitor, Nuvalent Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVL) raised $230 million through the sale of 6.9 million shares at $33.50 in a follow-on underwritten by J.P. Morgan, Cowen, Piper Sandler and BMO Capital Markets. The price is a 5% discount to Nuvalent’s closing price of $35.34 on Friday; the biotech proposed before market hours Monday to raise $200 million. Nuvalent posted a small gain during Monday’s session, and slipped $2.01 to $33.70 on Tuesday...