BRIEF—Daré Bioscience nabs $48.95 million Gates Foundation grant

US biotech Daré Bioscience revealed in a stock exchange filing yesterday that it has entered into an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, under which it was awarded a new grant of up to $48.95 million to support the development of DARE-LARC1, the company’s investigational user-controlled, long-acting reversible contraceptive.

The grant will support technology development and pre-clinical activities to advance DARE-LARC1 toward clinical testing in humans over the period of June 30, 2021 to November 1, 2026, said Daré, whose shares rose as much as 40% on the news and closed Wednesday up 23.7% at $1.88.

Daré will receive an initial payment of $11.45 million in July 2021.

Additional payments under the grant agreement are contingent upon the DARE-LARC1 program’s achievement of specified development and reporting milestones during the grant period.