ADC Therapeutics isn't going public in the US after all, while three other biotech IPOs bring in $319M
ADC Therapeutics is taking a last-minute U-turn at the NYSE after bumping their IPO goal up from $150 million to a potential $200 million — while three other biotechs went ahead by pricing at the midpoint or low end of their respective ranges.
Despite earlier indications that insiders would purchase $115 million worth of shares, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based company cited “adverse market conditions” for its decision to withdraw.
Chris Martin ADC “We are fortunate to have a strong balance sheet, highly supportive investors, alternative financing options and a steady flow of forthcoming milestones, all of which factored into our decision to not proceed with an initial public offering in the current market conditions,” CEO Chris Martin said in a statement.
The biotech is flush with cash to run pivotal trials for two of its namesake antibody-drug conjugates. Just two months ago ADC stacked another $103 million on a $200 million Series E.
But funding other, earlier studies may call for more capital, as will the scale-up of commercial and manufacturing operations to support marketing around the world. If all goes according to plan, ADC plans to launch its first product, the CD-19 targeting ADCT-402 for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, in 2021. They would be setting up a marketing team in New Jersey and eyeing a “substantial increase in staff, particularly in the North American part of the organization,” Martin told FierceBiotech in June.
Biotech has enjoyed a hot streak of high-valuation IPOs in 2019, with several more gunning for $100 million this week. But as the election year looms, how long that window will stay open has become a perennial question.
Viela Bio had little issue bagging $150 million on its Nasdaq debut $VIE, thought the price of $19 represented the low end of the range. The AstraZeneca spinout had to sell more shares — 7.9 million total — to maintain the deal size.
Bing YaoCEO Bing Yao has laid out swift clinical timelines for the autoimmune disease pipeline he’s carved out of the MedImmune biologics unit, which became a relic following an overhaul at AstraZeneca. The anti-CD19 drug inebilizumab is now under review and, if approved, will directly challenge Alexion’s Soliris in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder — a blockbuster indication that Roche is also angling for.
Meanwhile, Frequency Therapeutics {FREQ} couldn’t quite reach the original $100 million CEO David Lucchino had penciled in. Not only did it price at the low end of the range at $14 to bag $84 million, the company also sold only 6 million shares instead of 6.7 million.
The new cash will help fund a Phase IIa trial for its lead drug candidate — a small molecule drug that promises to stimulate regeneration of hair cells in the inner ear, thereby restoring hearing. FX-322 was designed on the PCA, or progenitor cell activation, platform out of a collaboration between illustrious MIT researcher Robert Langer and Harvard’s Jeff Karp.
Aprea was the safe and small player in the group, and the IPO price of $15 as well as the $85 million it reaped was more or less within expectations. For the biotech, which has roots in Sweden’s Karolinska Development, all eggs are in the p53 basket. In the upcoming pivotal trial they will test their theory that reactivating mutant p53 can make a difference in myelodysplastic syndromes when combined with chemotherapy.
Trials for that lead program, APR-246, and manufacturing as well as IND work for its oral p53 reactivator, APR-458, featured prominently in the IPO $APRE.
