As­traZeneca-backed En­ta­sis Ther­a­peu­tics joins the IPO class of 2018 with a weak de­but price

En­ta­sis Ther­a­peu­tics has made it to Nas­daq. 

The an­tibi­otics group — a spin­out from As­traZeneca — had a dis­ap­point­ing de­but, pric­ing shares at $15 apiece, be­low the range set be­tween $16 to $18. But the biotech was able to raise $75 mil­lion af­ter up­siz­ing the num­ber of shares on of­fer to 5 mil­lion.

The Waltham, MA-based com­pa­ny is run by a group of sur­vivors from an an­tibi­otics di­vi­sion that once em­ployed 175 peo­ple work­ing for As­traZeneca. The phar­ma gi­ant bowed out of ear­ly-stage an­tibi­otics re­search, as oth­ers have as well, and was un­able to sell the unit, as it had orig­i­nal­ly hoped. In the spin­out, the phar­ma gi­ant al­so pro­vid­ed a launch round to fund the work.

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