The fear of going out of business before getting a drug submitted to regulators is one that a couple of European biotechs have had to face up to this week.

During Q3, biopharmas brought in an aggregate $18.1bn in financing and device company fundraising totaled $5.1bn; while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players raised $771m.

Special purpose acquisition companies can bring biopharma firms to market faster than a traditional initial public offering, but frequent failures and increased scrutiny from the US Securities and Exchange Commission mean their heyday in the life sciences space is arguably over.

Even with higher interest rates, some debt on the balance sheets of profitable biotechs is healthy. However, among loss-making biotechs and in the current environment, raising new debt has unhealthy connotations.