Biotech IPO Stampede Continues with Five More Companies
The 2021 IPO stampede continues with five more companies aiming to trade on a stock exchange.
Tenaya Therapeutics – Hot off the heels of a $106 million Series C financing round, heart disease-focused Tenaya Therapeutics filed for a $100 million initial public offering. Based in South San Francisco, Tenaya Therapeutics is advancing a gene therapy program for heart disease.
The company’s lead program is MYBPC3, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy targeting genetic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused by a mutation in the MYBPC3 gene. MYBPC3 is being aimed at both adults and pediatric patients. The gene therapy candidate is currently in studies preparing for an Investigational New Drug Application.
Tenaya is also developing a second AAV gene therapy that involves its in-house discovered muscle-specific micro-peptide, dubbed DWORF, that impacts the SERCA pathway. The company believes the therapy has potential as a treatment for patients with genetic cardiomyopathies due to specific mutations as well as more prevalent heart failure populations.
Tenaya plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “TNYA.”
Rani Therapeutics – With a new CEO in place, California-based Rani Therapeutics is eying a listing on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “RANI.” The company filed for a $100 million IPO last week, according to Renaissance Capital.
Rani Therapeutics is developing the RainPill capsule, a robotic pill that has the potential to deliver a biologic into the gut via a dissolvable needle. The RainPill capsule is intended to replace subcutaneous and intravenous injections. The goal is to provide the biologic medication into the internal walls of the intestines to take advantage of the vascularized region. The belief is that the drug will have a more efficacious impact through this delivery mechanism.
Last month, Rani tapped former Vice President of Strategy Talat Imran to serve as CEO. Talat Imran replaces Mir Imran, the company’s founder and former CEO, who will become executive chairman of the company’s board of directors.
Omega Therapeutics – Flagship Pioneering-backed Omega Therapeutics filed for its IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The company aims to raise $100 million and will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “OMGA.”
Cambridge, Mass.-based Omega is coming off a $126 million Series C financing round. The company’s lead epigenomic controller candidate is OTX-2002, a potential treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma. OTX-2002 is engineered to specifically control c-myc (MYC) oncogene expression. In preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), OTX-2002 potently downregulated MYC expression, a result that has historically eluded many prior attempts and therapeutic approaches.
Immuneering – Six months after raising $62 million in a Series B financing round, Immuneering Corporation intends to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “IMRX,” Renaissance Capital reported. Bay State-based Immuneering filed for a $100 million IPO last week.
Immuneering's proprietary Disease Cancelling Technology aims to develop medicines that halt or reverse disease signals across multiple relevant genes. The company’s lead investigational program is IMM-1-104, a highly selective dual-MEK inhibitor being developed for the treatment of advanced solid tumor patients harboring RAS mutant tumors.
MaxCyte – Maryland-based MaxCyte, a commercial cell-engineering company, aims to raise $100 million on the Nasdaq. The company filed to list on the stock exchange under the ticker symbol “MXCT.” MaxCyte is currently listed on the London Stock Exchange.