The wave of biopharma companies going public continues with two more companies setting sights on publicly trading on a stock exchange. Reneo Pharmaceuticals and VectivBio will both begin trading on the Nasdaq this week.
Noam Galai/Getty Images
The wave of biopharma companies going public continues with two more companies setting sights on publicly trading on a stock exchange. Reneo Pharmaceuticals and VectivBio will both begin trading on the Nasdaq this week.
Reneo Pharmaceuticals
San Diego-based Reneo Pharmaceuticals, which is focused on developing treatments for patients with genetic mitochondrial diseases, is aiming for $100 million in its IPO. The company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “RPHM.” Shares will trade Friday and the price is expected to be between $15 and $17, according to Barron’s.
Reneo’s IPO comes about four months after the company raised $95 million in a Series B financing round that was supported by Novo Nordisk’s venture arm, Novo Ventures and Abingworth. Reneo’s lead asset is the Phase II-ready REN001, an oral, once-daily investigational drug the company said is known to control several genes involved in mitochondrial activity.
Reneo is developing REN001 as a first-in-class oral selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARδ) agonist aimed at improving cellular energy metabolism through the enhancement of mitochondrial function and also potentially increase the number of mitochondria.
In March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Fast Track Designation to REN001 for the treatment of patients with primary mitochondrial myopathies (PMM). REN001 is in clinical development for PMM, a group of rare, and often life-threatening diseases that are caused by mutations in mitochondrial or nuclear DNA. These mutations hinder the ability of affected cells to break down food and oxygen and generate energy.
Currently, there are no approved drugs for the treatment of PMM. Other indications targeted by REN001 are long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorders and glycogen storage disorder type V, more commonly known as McArdle disease.
VectivBio
Like Reneo, Switzerland-based VectivBio is coming off a significant Series B financing round. In October 2002, the company raised $110 million in a crossover financing deal to advance its rare disease assets. The company’s lead asset, apraglutide, is currently in Phase III development as a potential treatment for short bowel syndrome, a malabsorption disorder caused by a lack of functional small intestine.
Apraglutide is a next-generation, long-acting, potent, synthetic GLP-2 analog that acts as a selective, full agonist of the GLP-2 receptor, according to the company. Apraglutide is designed to enable patients to minimize the burden from parenteral support through the increasing intestinal absorption of fluids, calories and nutrients. VectivBio dosed its first patient in the Phase III study in February.
For its IPO, VectivBio hopes to raise about $128 million. The company will offer 7.5 million shares of its common stock at $16 to $18 each. The stock is expected to begin trading on Friday under the ticker symbol “VECT.”
VectivBio’s move to becoming a publically traded company a little more than one year after its launch. VectivBio was founded in 2019 and launched in January 2020 with $35 million in financing. The new company is a spinout of Therachon Holding AG, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2019.
