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Healthcare IPO summary for week of May 20, 2019. The seven new filings, totaling $812M, were just what the SEC staff needed to start their Memorial Day-shortened work week.

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Two healthcare companies raised $111M last week, and a jaw-dropping seven more filed with the SEC, adding to what has been a blistering May for IPOs.

First, the pricings:

1) IDEAYA Biosciences Inc., a Phase 1 biotech developing targeted therapies for genetically-defined cancers, raised $50 million by offering 5 million shares at $10, below the range of $13 to $15. IDEAYA is focused on tar­geted can­cer ther­a­pies and syn­thetic lethal­ity–the strat­egy of tar­get­ing two genes si­mul­ta­ne­ously for a more po­tent ef­fect. It’s start­ing out with an early-​stage drug picked up for a song from No­var­tis AG. The plan is to take the drug, a PKC in­hibitor for can­cers with GNAQ and GNA11 mu­ta­tions, straight into a bas­ket study in solid tu­mors, then fol­low that with a slate of pre­clin­i­cal pro­grams com­pos­ing what Hata sees as the most “di­verse port­fo­lio” in the pre­ci­sion med­i­cine field.

South San Francisco-based IDEAYA Biosciences lists on the Nasdaq under the symbol “IDYA.” J.P. Morgan, Citi and Jefferies acted as lead managers on the deal. Shares closed the week up 13% at $11.25. They closed Tuesday, May 28, up 14 cents at $11.39.

2) Bicycle Therapeutics Inc., a Phase 1 biotech developing novel oncology medicines based on bicyclic peptides, raised $61 million by offering 4.3 million ADSs at $14, the low end of the range of $14 to $16. Insiders had intended to purchase up to $25 million of the IPO. The company owes its name on the syn­thetic short pep­tides it’s de­vel­op­ing, which are made up of 9 to 15 amino acids and cre­ate two loops like the wheels of a bi­cy­cle. The the­ory is that the smaller struc­ture and ad­justable half-​life al­lows their drugs to do their job–drop­ping a pay­load ei­ther aimed at a dis­ease tar­get or an im­mune re­sponse–and get out of the body quicker than an­ti­bod­ies, low­er­ing the hur­dle on tox­i­c­ity.

The Cambridge, UK-based company lists on the Nasdaq under the symbol “BCYC.” Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Piper Jaffray acted as joint book-running managers on the deal. Shares closed the week down 7% at $13.05. They closed Tuesday, May 28, down another 6% at $12.28.

Next, new filings:

1) Included among the SEC filings for initial public offerings, Personalis Inc., which provides a genome-sequencing platform for cancer research, registered up to $115 million worth of common stock. The Menlo Park, CA-based company was founded in 2011 and booked $48 million in sales for the 12 months ended March 31, 2019.

Personalis bills itself as a growing cancer genomics company transforming the development of next-generation therapies by providing more comprehensive molecular data about each patient’s cancer and immune response. They claim to have designed the NeXT Platform to adapt to the complex and evolving understanding of cancer, providing their biopharmaceutical customers with information on all of the approximately 20,000 human genes, together with the immune system, in contrast to many cancer panels that cover roughly 50 to 500 genes.

Personalis plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “PSNL.” Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Cowen are the Joint Bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

2) Elsewhere, Stoke Therapeutics Inc., which is developing therapies that increase gene expression to treat severe genetic diseases, registered up to $86 million worth of common.

The company is pioneering a new way to treat the underlying causes of severe genetic diseases by precisely upregulating protein expression. They are developing novel antisense oligonucleotide, or ASO, medicines that target ribonucleic acid, or RNA, and modulate precursor-messenger RNA, or pre-mRNA, splicing to upregulate protein expression where needed and with appropriate specificity to near normal levels. They plan to submit an investigational new drug application for lead candidate STK-001 by early 2020 and expect to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the first half of 2020.

Bedford, MA-based Stoke was founded in 2014 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “STOK.” J.P. Morgan, Cowen, and Credit Suisse are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

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Then on Fri­day af­ter the mar­kets closed, five more biotech’s tossed their S-​1s into the ring, scoring at least 22 IPO entrants for the year to date. That just barely tops the 20 biotechs that had gone pub­lic by this time last year.

The latecomers to the party included:

1) Atreca Inc., a preclinical biotech developing immunotherapies for solid tumors, which registered up to $100 million worth of common. The com­pany is fo­cused on im­munother­a­pies, by us­ing tis­sue sam­ples from can­cer pa­tients to gather “ideal” an­ti­bod­ies, em­ploy­ing B cells as their sound­ing board, for use in solid tu­mors. Atreca ex­pects to sub­mit an FDA ap­pli­ca­tion to test its lead ex­per­i­men­tal drug, ATRC-​101, in hu­mans in late 2019, and kick off an early-​stage trial in early 2020. The Redwood City, CA-based company was founded in 2010 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “BCEL.” Atreca filed confidentially on April 24, 2019. Cowen, Evercore ISI and Stifel are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

2) BridgeBio Pharma Inc., a Phase 3 biotech developing therapies for genetic diseases, registered up to $225 million worth of common. The company fo­cuses on ge­netic dis­eases en­com­pass­ing der­ma­tol­ogy, on­col­ogy, car­di­ol­ogy, neu­rol­ogy, en­docrinol­ogy, re­nal dis­ease, and oph­thal­mol­ogy. Bridge­Bio now has 16 pro­grams, of which 4 are in or ap­proach­ing late-​stage de­vel­op­ment. The Palo Alto, CA-based company was founded in 2015 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “BBIO.” J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, SVB Leerink, KKR, Piper Jaffray, Mizuho Securities, BMO Capital Markets and Raymond James are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

3) Dermavant Sciences Ltd., a Phase 3 biotech developing therapies for dermatological diseases, registered up to $100 million worth of common. Lead candidate is tapinarof, a topical cream for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. It acquired global rights to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor modulating agent from GlaxoSmithKline in August 2018. Two pivotal Phase 3 studies were launched in May.The London, UK-based company was founded in 2015 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “DRMT.” Dermavant Sciences filed confidentially on December 20, 2018. Jefferies, SVB Leerink and Guggenheim Securities are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

4) Prevail Therapeutics Inc., an early stage biotech developing gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, registered up to $100 million in an IPO. The New York-​based com­pany aims to de­velop a broader set of adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene ther­a­pies for neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases, with a fo­cus on ge­net­i­cally de­fined pa­tient pop­u­la­tions. In Parkin­son’s, that means tar­get­ing the GBA1 mu­ta­tion–an un­der­ly­ing dri­ver of the (less com­mon) neu­ro­log­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tions of a com­mon lyso­so­mal stor­age dis­or­der known as Gaucher dis­ease. The company was founded in 2017 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “PRVL.” Prevail Therapeutics filed confidentially on March 27, 2019. Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Cowen are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

5) And Akero Therapeutics Inc., an early stage biotech developing therapies for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other metabolic diseases, registered up to $86 million worth of common. Akero is focused on making the case for its FGF21 ana­log–in-​licensed from Am­gen–in dis­rupt­ing dis­ease pro­gres­sion, start­ing from the fat ac­cu­mu­la­tion that is be­lieved to cause cell stress. Af­ter treat­ing 83 type 2 di­a­betes pa­tients with the drug, in­ves­ti­ga­tors ob­served bet­ter plasma lipopro­tein lev­els and in­sulin sen­si­tiv­ity. All of which in­di­cat­es “the po­ten­tial of AKR-​001 to redi­rect calo­ries away from the liver, re­duce liver fat, al­le­vi­ate he­pa­to­cyte stress, in­hibit in­flam­ma­tion and re­solve fi­bro­sis in pa­tients with NASH.

The South San Francisco, CA-based company was founded in 2017 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “AKRO.” J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Evercore ISI and Roth Capital are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

Other IPO news:

Peloton Therapeutics Inc., a Phase 2 biotech developing small-molecule HIF-2a inhibitors for kidney cancer, announced that it would be acquired by Merck & Co. for $1.05 billion, plus up to $1.15 billion in milestone payments. It had filed to raise $150 million at a fully-diluted post-IPO market cap of $742 million. Primary shareholders included The Column Group, Remeditex Ventures, Topspin Partners, RA Capital Management, The Regents of the University of California and Nextech Invest. The Dallas, TX-based company was founded in 2010 and had planned to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “PLTX.” J.P. Morgan, Citi and Jefferies were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.

(Endpoints furnished supplemental data on the 5 latecomers to last week’s IPO rain dance)



This post first appeared on Monday Morning, please read the originial post: here

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Healthcare IPO summary for week of May 20, 2019. The seven new filings, totaling $812M, were just what the SEC staff needed to start their Memorial Day-shortened work week.

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