A Look at 7 Upcoming and Recently Announced Biotech IPOs
This year has been a huge year for biopharma initial public offerings (IPOs). According to BioPharm Catalyst there were, or soon will be, 58 biopharma IPOs in 2018. A recent Bloomberg article described 38 new U.S. biotech listings that raised $3.9 billion. And the trend doesn’t appear to be slowing. Here’s a look at five upcoming biotech IPOs.
#1. Entasis Therapeutics. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, Entasis spun out from AstraZeneca in 2015, taking with it a small-molecule anti-infectives portfolio. The company, after the initial funding from AstraZeneca, raised another $81.9 million in equity financing. On August 14, Entasis announced positive topline results from its Phase II clinical trial of ETX2514, a beta-lactamase inhibitor, in combination with sulbactam, to treat complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) including acute pyelonephritis (kidney infection) in adults.
The company hopes to raise $75 million in its U.S. IPO, and will list under the symbol ETTX. The expected pricing date is September 25.
#2. Urovant Sciences. A Vivek Ramaswamy company under the Roivant Sciences umbrella, Urovant filed for an IPO to raise $150 million. It expects to list on the Nasdaq under the UROV symbol. Urovant is a clinical-stage biopharma company focused on developing and commercializing drugs for urologic conditions. Its lead product candidate is vibregron, an oral, once-daily, small molecule beta-3 agonist. It licensed the drug from Merck Sharp & Dohme. It is being developed to treat overactive bladder with symptoms of urge urinary incontinence, urgency, and urinary frequency.
On August 28, Urovant licensed another compound, hMaxi-K from Ion Channel Innovations for overactive bladder. The drug had already been studied in two Phase I trials. The IPO pricing date is September 27.
#3. Ra Medical Systems. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Ra offers advanced excimer laser systems for vascular and dermatological diseases. The IPO pricing date is September 27.
The company hopes to raise $50 million and trade under the RMED symbols. Ra Medical Systems has two laser systems, DABRA and Pharos, to treat vascular and dermatology diseases, respectively. The company plans to use about $21 million to expand its direct sales force and marketing of its product, another $14 million to support clinical trials for new products and product enhancements, and the rest will be used for R&D, working capital and general corporate purposes.
#4. Sutro Biopharma. Located in South San Francisco, Sutro Biopharma focuses on next-generation cancer and autoimmune therapeutics with the development of antibody conjugates, bispecific antibodies and cytokine derivatives. In July, the company raised $85.4 million in a Series E financing, which was used to advance its pipeline of novel cancer therapeutics, including two internally-developed antibody-drug conjugates, dubbed STRO-001 and STRO-002. The brought the funds raised to a total of $175 million since 2003.
Sutro has an IPO pricing date of September 27. It plans to raise $75 million and trade under the STRO symbols.
#5. Arvinas. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Arvinas focuses on drugs based on protein degradation. Its two lead programs target the androgen receptor for castration-resistant prostate cancer and the estrogen receptor for ER+ breast cancer. In April, the company raised $55 million in a Series C financing. Total fundraising has hit $11.6 million.
Arvinas also has a pricing date of September 27. It hopes to raise $100 million and trade under the symbol ARVN.
In addition to these five, Kodiak Sciences announced today that it plans an IPO and will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol KOD. Based in Palo Alto, California, on August 31, Kodiak announced enrollment had been completed for its Phase I trial of KSI-301 to treat retinal vascular diseases, including neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease.
In addition, PhaseBio, headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, which focuses on orphan diseases in the cardiopulmonary space, filed a prospectus for an $86 million IPO. The company also announced today positive preliminary data from a Phase I clinical trial of PB2452 in patients with major bleeding events or who require urgent surgery.
Writing about the current trends in biotech IPOs for Forbes, Bruce Booth says, “These data reflect the investment community’s excitement about buying into bona fide therapeutic innovation: new modalities unlocking potential cures, new products based on transformational biology, platforms that can produce multiple first- or best-in-class programs — all with an expectation of these new medicines having a significant impact on patients.”