Denmark's Genmab hits the jackpot with $500M+ US IPO as smaller biotechs rake in a combined $147M
Danish drugmaker Genmab A/S is off to the races with perhaps one of the biggest biotech public listings in decades, having reaped over $500 million on the Nasdaq, as it positions itself as a bonafide player in antibody-based cancer therapies.
The company, which has long served as J&J’s $JNJ key partner on the blockbuster multiple myeloma therapy Darzalex, has asserted it has been looking to launch its own proprietary product — one it owns at least half of — by 2025.
There are at least five such products — which Genmab has fondly christened “knock-your-socks-off antibodies” — including an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) called tisotumab vedotin being co-developed with Seattle Genetics $SGEN, and another ADC called enapotamab vedotin that the company fully owns. Then there’s an antibody targeting solid tumors called HexaBody-DR5/DR5 as well as a bispecific antibody engineered to fight B-cell malignancies called DuoBody-CD3xCD20 — which are also fully owned by Genmab. Finally, there’s another bispecific antibody — DuoBody-PD-L1x4-1BB — whose development is split with BioNTech.
Apart from these, the Copenhagen based company has a string of other partners: Gilead $GILD, Novo Nordisk $NVO, Amgen $AMGN, Immatics and ADC Therapeutics.
On Thursday, the Copenhagen-based company said it generated gross proceeds of $505,875,000 by selling 2,850,000 ordinary shares of Genmab in the form of 28.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at a price of $17.75 per ADS. It is set to trade under the symbol “GMAB”.
Last week, the company had set out the potential terms of its IPO: with a plan to sell 27.8 million shares at $18.11 per ADS, which would have translated to a market cap of a whopping $11.8 billion.
Darzalex, which raked in $90 million in milestone payments and $262 million in royalties and accounted for nearly 76% of Genmab’s 2018 revenue, currently is being tested in multiple trials in a bid to expand its use. Meanwhile, competition from Sanofi $SNY is looming.

Genmab’s other marketed treatment Arzerra — partnered with Novartis $NVS — has not fared as well. Last year, the Swiss drugmaker recorded net sales of $26 million — generating roughly $5 million in royalties for Genmab. The drug has been cleared for use in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and is now being studied for multiple sclerosis.
There were another couple of smaller IPO pricings on Wednesday.
After wresting control of two liver drugs from Shire and priming them for pivotal trials — Mirum Pharmaceuticals’ Mike Grey has steered the California biotech to a $75 million IPO. The two drugs — maralixibat and volixibat — cost Mirum $7.5 million upfront. Shire — now part of Takeda — had wagered $260 million on Lumena (where Grey was once CEO) largely on the promise of these two assets, which both target the apical sodium-dependent bile acid transporter, a protein expressed in the small intestine.

The company — which has raised $120 million Series A cash since launching last November — has sold 5 million shares at $15/share — at the midpoint of its range of $14 to $16. It is set to trade on the Nasdaq on Thursday under the symbol “MIRM”.
While on the east coast, Fulcrum Therapeutics has raised gross proceeds of $72 million, by selling 4.5 million shares at $16/share — the lower end of its range of $16 to $18.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company — which raised $80 million in a Series B round to shepherd the first of its gene-regulating small molecules into the clinic last September — is run by biotech veteran Bob Gould who formerly served as Epizyme’s chief. The company is set to trade on Thursday under the symbol “FULC” on the Nasdaq.
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