4 Biotech IPOs this Week: Kronos, Shattuck, Spruce and Aziyo

It’s been a fairly busy week for biotech initial public offerings (IPOs) with four announcing their list pricing. Here’s a look.

Kronos Bio: San Mateo, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Kronos Bio announced the pricing of its IPO offering of 13,157,895 shares of its common stock at a price of $19 per share. The plan is to raise about $250 million with the offering.

Kronos focuses on first-in-class therapies for so-called undruggable targets. It uses high-throughput small-molecule microarrays (SMM), targeted protein degradation, and cancer biology.

On August 24, the company announced a $155 million financing led by Perceptive Advisors and included funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, funds affiliated with Casin Partners, Commodore Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Surveyor Capital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Woodline Partners, and a diversified asset manager on the west coast. It was joined by existing investors, including GV, Invus, Nextech Invest, Omega Funds, Polaris Partners and Vida Ventures.

At the time, Norbert Bischofberg, president and chief executive officer of Kronos, stated, “This capital will help advance our lead spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor, advanced our second lead pipeline candidate, KB-0742, a differentiated CDK9 inhibitor, into a Phase I/II clinical trial for treatment of MYC-amplified solid tumors, as well as to further invest in our product discovery engine to drive multiple oncology programs targeting dysregulated transcription factors.”

Shattuck Labs: Based in Durham, North Carolina and Austin, Texas, Shattuck Labs announced the pricing of its upsized IPO of 11,882,352 shares of common stock at $17 per share. The IPO is expected to bring in $202 million.

Shattuck focuses on cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its proprietary Agonist Redirected Checkpoint (ARC) platform was designed to solve the challenge of consolidating checkpoint blockade and Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Superfamily (TNFRSF) agonism into single therapeutics. As such, the company has generated over 300 unique therapeutic candidates for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

On August 31, Shattuck initiated the Phase I trial of SL-172154 (SIRPalpha-Fc-CD40L), a bi-functional fusion protein that simultaneously blocks the CD47/SIRPalpha checkpoint and activates the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) costimulatory receptor CD40.

Taylor Schreiber, Shattuck’s chief executive officer, stated at the time, “SL-172154 is our lead wholly-owned product candidate and a potentially best-in-class CD47 checkpoint inhibitor, a recently clinically validated target for cancer immunotherapy. In preclinical studies, SL-172154 demonstrated superior anti-tumor activity as compared to either CD47- or CD40-targeted antibodies, either alone or in combination. Based on its ability to simultaneously block the CD47/SIRPalpha checkpoint and activate the CD40 costimulatory receptor, we believe SL-172154 offers a promising approach to treating patients with ovarian cancer and a range of other cancer types.”

Spruce Biosciences: Headquartered in San Francisco, Spruce Biosciences announced the pricing of its IPO of 6 million shares of common stock at $15 per share for a total raise of about $135 million.

Spruce focuses on developing and commercializing drugs for rare endocrine disorders with significant unmet medical need. Its wholly-owned product candidate, tildacerfont, is a CRF1 receptor antagonist in late-stage trials in adults with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) with a planned Phase II trial in pediatric classic CAH.

In May 2020, Spruce announced the launch of CAHstudy.com, a website and patient resource for adults with CAH to register their interest in the CAHmelia clinical program. The program is designed to evaluate tildacerfont in two placebo-controlled, late stage clinical trials in adults with Classic CAH.

In September 2019, the company released positive data from a Phase II 12-week study of tildacerfont in adults with Classic CAH. Classic CAH is a rare genetic disorder that affects the ability of the adrenal glands to function properly. It affects up to 35,000 people in the U.S.

“Our previous studies have demonstrated promising safety and efficacy results from the use of tildacerfont in adults with Classic CAH,” Richard King, Spruce’s chief executive officer, said in May. “We are excited to move forward with the CAHmelia clinical program and encourage patients with CAH and their families to visit CAHstudy.com to register their interest in the study and begin the screening process.”

Aziyo Biologics: Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, Aziyo Biologics announced its IPO offering of 2,941,176 shares of stock at $17 per share, with gross proceeds expected to be $50 million.

Aziyo focuses on developing and commercializing regenerative medicine products. For example, on June 29, the company launched OsteGro V, a viable cell bone matrix containing cancellous bone particles as well as demineralized cortical bone particles and fibers. It is optimized to protect and preserve native bone cells. It joins the company’s portfolio of bone matrix products, including ViBone and FiberCel product lines.