Olema Oncology Prices IPO at $19 Per Share, Expects Gross Proceeds of $209 Million
San Francisco-based breast cancer biotech Olema Oncology has priced its initial public offering (IPO) of 11,000,000 common shares at a public price of $19.00 per share, a price the company expects to lead to gross proceeds of $209.0 million.
In the IPO announcement, Olema Oncology notes it has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 1,650,000 more common stock shares at the IPO price. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under OLMA. Lead managers of the deal include J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Cowen and Canaccord Genuity. Trading started November 19, with a closing date set for November 23.
Olema Oncology, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the research and development of targeted treatments for women’s cancers, previously secured $54 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round in July 2020. And in early October, the company raised $85 million in Series C financing, which is being used to advance Olema Oncology’s lead product candidate, OP-1250, in clinical trials.
"We are pleased to have such strong support from our new and existing investors as we begin our next phase of growth as a clinical-stage company in pursuit of our mission to bring novel, potentially life-saving therapies to women affected by breast cancer," according to a statement made by Olema Oncology’s President and Chief Executive Officer Sean P. Bohen, M.D., Ph.D. "We recently strengthened our executive team and Board with the appointment of leading industry experts and initiated a Phase 1/2 trial of OP-1250."
OP-1250 is an orally available small molecule which acts as a complete estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist as well as a selective ER degrader. Olema Oncology is investigating the single-agent molecule in a Phase I/II trial to identify its activity, safety and potential efficacy for recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic ER-positive (ER+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) breast cancer.
"We are impressed by OP-1250 and the opportunity it presents in women's oncology,” said Albert Cha, M.D., Ph.D., Partner at Vivo Capital, which led the $85 million Series C financing round. “With its oral formulation and differentiated profile, OP-1250 is poised to potentially overcome the limitations of current endocrine therapies for metastatic ER+ breast cancer and potentially become the endocrine therapy of choice to treat women with this type of cancer."
In November, Olema Oncology announced that it has started a clinical trial studying OP-1250 in combination with Pfizer’s palbociclib in patients with recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic ER+, HER2- breast cancer. Terms of a non-exclusive agreement with Pfizer state that Olema Oncology will conduct the trial, while Pfizer will be responsible for supplying the study drug.
Just last month, however, Pfizer announced that its Phase III PENELOPE-B trial failed to demonstrate a benefit of palbociclib in the treatment of patients with early breast cancer with residual invasive disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Participants in the study received one year of palbociclib plus at least five years of standard adjuvant endocrine therapy or placebo plus standard adjuvant endocrine therapy. The trial did not meet the primary endpoint of improved invasive disease-free survival, but no unexpected safety signals were observed.
During the summer, Pfizer’s recent Phase III PALLAS trial also found no benefit with palbociclib for improving invasive disease-free survival in patients with breast cancer. Shares of the company dipped 6% following the news of these findings.
In spite of these results, chief development officer in oncology for Pfizer Global Product Development, Chris Boshoff, noted that continued examination of the PENELOPE-B trial data might produce positive information about patient subgroups, holding out hope that the drug could prove useful for certain cases.
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