November 19, 2014
By Krystle Vermes, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has filed a ticker symbol” target="_blank">registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering worth $115 million.
Jefferies LLC Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Piper Jaffray and Co. are acting as joint book running managers for the offering, and the price range has yet to be determined. The registration statement related to these securities has not become effective, and the securities may not be sold until it goes into effect.
Bellicum plans to trade on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol BLCM, according to Xconomy. The company, which is based in Houston, Texas, was founded 10 years ago. Today, it’s focused on developing cancer therapies using its core technology that allows physicians to control cells.
Bellicum Raises Additional Cash
Back in August, Bellicum announced that it had raised $55 million in a Series C round of funding, courtesy of 11 biotech and public mutual funds that participated in the event. Its previous investors, AVG Ventures and Remeditex Ventures, also participated in the funding round.
At the time, the company announced that the money would be used to expand clinical trials for two drug candidates, BPX-501 and BPX-201. BPX-501 is used in stem cell transplants in an effort to treat leukemia and lymphoma in patients. BPX-201 is a vaccine that is designed to fight prostate cancer.
This Series C funding round comes after a Series B round in January, which concluded with $107 million.
ARIAD and Bellicum Team Up
At the beginning of October, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and Bellicum announced that they had restructured their licensing agreement for ARIAD’s cell-signaling technology. ARIAD was set to receive $50 million in exchange for a fully paid up license to the technology and return of its equity stake in Bellicum.
“This license restructuring allows Bellicum to fully exploit our specialized cell signaling switches and related platforms, free of future royalty or milestone obligations to ARIAD,” said Tom Farrell, Bellicum’s chief executive officer. “The expanded license also includes additional cell-signaling technology that may enable future products with dual control switches.”
ARIAD’s technology uses a small-molecule drug to activate cell signaling and other cellular events. This technology is designed for broad use in human cell therapies for all diseases on a royalty and milestone-free basis.
