Four biotechs and a Matthew Ro­den-led SPAC price IPOs, rais­ing a com­bined $528M

Four more biotechs and a SPAC led by Bris­tol My­ers Squibb vet Matthew Ro­den have priced IPOs, clos­ing out an­oth­er busy week on Wall Street.

To­geth­er, Prax­is Pre­ci­sion Med­i­cines, Tar­sus Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, Ali­gos Ther­a­peu­tics, Kiromic Bio­Phar­ma and Turmer­ic Ac­qui­si­tion — MPM’s blank check com­pa­ny — have raised $528 mil­lion on their pub­lic de­buts.

Prax­is Pre­ci­sion Med­i­cines burst out of stealth mode with $100 mil­lion in May, quick­ly sweep­ing up an­oth­er $110 mil­lion in Ju­ly. And on Thurs­day, it raised $190 mil­lion — near­ly dou­ble its orig­i­nal goal — in an up­sized IPO. The Cam­bridge, MA-based biotech $PRAX of­fered 10 mil­lion shares at $19 apiece, up from its ini­tial of­fer of 7.4 mil­lion shares at a $17 to $18 range.

Be­tween $70 to $80 mil­lion are tagged for clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment PRAX-114, the com­pa­ny’s lead CNS can­di­date. The mon­ey will fund a fu­ture Phase II/III tri­al in ma­jor de­pres­sive dis­or­der, and com­ple­tion of an on­go­ing Phase IIa. An­oth­er $30 to $40 mil­lion will go to­ward an on­go­ing Phase IIa study of PRAX-944 in es­sen­tial tremor. And $20 to $30 mil­lion should see a Phase I tri­al of PRAX-562 — Prax­is’ can­di­date for rare CNS dis­or­ders like se­vere pe­di­atric epilep­sy and adult cephal­gia — through com­ple­tion.

Since its launch, Prax­is has burned through more than $104 mil­lion, ac­cord­ing to the S-1/A. Black­stone holds 23.1% of the shares, fol­lowed by Even­tide with 9.4%, Vi­da Ven­tures with 7.3%, and No­vo Hold­ings with 6.6%.

“We ex­pect mul­ti­ple topline clin­i­cal tri­al read­outs from our three clin­i­cal-stage prod­uct can­di­dates pri­or to the end of 2021 and an­tic­i­pate the launch of a new clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment pro­gram in 2021,” the S-1/A states.

Tar­sus Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals al­so came in slight­ly above its ini­tial goal, rais­ing $88 mil­lion by pric­ing 5.5 mil­lion shares at $16 apiece. The Irvine, CA-based biotech $TARS filed for an $86 mil­lion IPO on Sept 25. It up­sized its of­fer by 575,000 shares, ac­cord­ing to an SEC fil­ing.

A ma­jor­i­ty of the pro­ceeds — about $65 mil­lion — will be poured in­to the com­pa­ny’s lead oph­thalmic can­di­date TP-03. The drug is cur­rent­ly in a Phase IIb/III tri­al for De­mod­ex ble­phar­i­tis, a con­di­tion char­ac­ter­ized by eye in­flam­ma­tion and caused by the in­fes­ta­tion of mites. Tar­sus ex­pects a Phase III launch in 2021. The re­main­ing funds may go to the biotech’s oth­er can­di­dates, TP-04 and TP-05, which it plans to en­ter in Phase I/II tri­als for rosacea and Ly­me dis­ease in 2021, re­spec­tive­ly.

Bobak Aza­mi­an

Since its found­ing in 2017, Tar­sus has spent a to­tal of $11.2 mil­lion. Vi­vo Cap­i­tal holds 15.77% of shares, while CEO Bobak Aza­mi­an has a 9.7% piece of the pie.

Ali­gos Ther­a­peu­tics $AL­GS filed for a $100 mil­lion IPO back in Sep­tem­ber to de­vel­op its chron­ic he­pati­tis B (CHB) and NASH ther­a­pies. Now the South San Fran­cis­co, CA-based biotech is rak­ing in $150 mil­lion through 10 mil­lion shares priced at $15 apiece, the mid­point of a $14 to $16 range.

About $40 to $43 mil­lion will go to­ward the com­pa­ny’s Phase I STOPS can­di­date ALG-010133, short for S-anti­gen trans­port-in­hibit­ing oligonu­cleotide poly­mer. An­oth­er $35 mil­lion to $38 mil­lion will fund an up­com­ing Phase I tri­al of its CAM (cap­sid as­sem­bly mod­u­la­tor) can­di­date ALG-000184. Twelve to $14 mil­lion will go to the NASH THR-b can­di­date ALG-055009. And Ali­gos ear­marked $12 to $15 mil­lion and $12 to $14 mil­lion for its CHB can­di­dates ALG-020572 and ALG-125097, re­spec­tive­ly.

The two-year-old biotech has spent $107 mil­lion, ac­cord­ing to its S-1/A. CEO Lawrence Blatt, for­mer head of in­fec­tious dis­ease at Janssen, holds 6.2% of shares. Roche Fi­nance, Ver­sant Ven­tures and Bak­er Broth­ers Ad­vi­sors each have 8.4% of the stock, fol­lowed by Vi­vo with 8.1%, No­vo with 6.6% and Welling­ton Man­age­ment with 5.2%.

Turmer­ic Ac­qui­si­tion, a blank check com­pa­ny formed by MPM Cap­i­tal, end­ed up down­siz­ing its of­fer from 10 mil­lion units to 8.5 mil­lion. The SPAC priced units at $10 each, rais­ing $85 mil­lion.

Matthew Ro­den

The com­pa­ny $TMP­MU is run by CEO Luke Evnin, who co-found­ed MPM Cap­i­tal in 1997, and chair­man Ro­den, who had a hand in Bris­tol My­ers Squibbs’ Cel­gene buy­out be­fore re­cent­ly join­ing MPM.

The duo — along­side the rest of the firm — now has two years to se­lect the pri­vate com­pa­ny to ride the shell of Turmer­ic to Nas­daq and in­her­it the in­vest­ment.

“We have not se­lect­ed any busi­ness com­bi­na­tion tar­get and we have not, nor has any­one on our be­half, ini­ti­at­ed any sub­stan­tive dis­cus­sions, di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly, with any busi­ness com­bi­na­tion tar­get,” the SPAC’s S-1/A states.

Kiromic Bio­Phar­ma $KRBP priced its shares at $12 apiece on Fri­day — the low end of its $12 to $14 range. The Hous­ton, TX-based biotech of­fered 1.3 mil­lion shares, rais­ing $15 mil­lion. The com­pa­ny is us­ing AI to de­vel­op can­cer ther­a­pies, and says the IPO funds will push its Alex­is iso­form mesothe­lin (for EOC) and PD-1 can­di­dates in­to the clin­ic.

By the end of last month, 56 biotechs had filed for IPOs this year — top­ping Brad Lon­car’s count of 47 last year. Both SQZ Biotech and Lux Health Tech Ac­qui­si­tion, a SPAC formed by Lux Cap­i­tal, filed to go pub­lic on Mon­day. SQZ pro­posed a $75 mil­lion raise to de­vel­op its cell ther­a­pies, while Lux is look­ing to nab $300 mil­lion. On Tues­day, Co­di­ak’s shares priced in at $15 apiece, net­ting $83 mil­lion.

Has the mo­ment fi­nal­ly ar­rived for val­ue-based health­care?

RBC Capital Markets’ Healthcare Technology Analyst, Sean Dodge, spotlights a new breed of tech-enabled providers who are rapidly transforming the way clinicians deliver healthcare, and explores the key question: can this accelerating revolution overturn the US healthcare system?

Key points

Tech-enabled healthcare providers are poised to help the US transition to value, not volume, as the basis for reward.
The move to value-based care has policy momentum, but is risky and complex for clinicians.
Outsourced tech specialists are emerging to provide the required expertise, while healthcare and tech are also converging through M&A.
Value-based care remains in its early stages, but the transition is accelerating and represents a huge addressable market.

FDA ad­vi­sors unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval for Bio­gen's ALS drug

A panel of outside advisors to the FDA unanimously recommended that the agency grant accelerated approval to Biogen’s ALS drug tofersen despite the drug failing the primary goal of its Phase III study, an endorsement that could pave a path forward for the treatment.

By a 9-0 vote, members of the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee said there was sufficient evidence that tofersen’s effect on a certain protein associated with ALS is reasonably likely to predict a benefit for patients. But panelists stopped short of advocating for a full approval, voting 3-5 against (with one abstention) and largely citing the failed pivotal study.

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Alaa Halawa, executive director at Mubadala’s US venture group

The ven­ture crew at Mubadala are up­ping their biotech cre­ation game, tak­ing care­ful aim at a new fron­tier in drug de­vel­op­ment

It started with a cup of coffee and a slow burning desire to go early and long in the biotech creation business.

Wrapping up a 15-year discovery stint at Genentech back in the summer of 2021, Rami Hannoush was treated to a caffeine-fueled review of the latest work UCSF’s Jim Wells had been doing on protein degradation — one of the hottest fields in drug development.

“Jim and I have known each other for the past 15 years through Genentech collaborations. We met over coffee, and he was telling me about this concept of the company that he was thinking of,” says Hannoush. “And I got immediately intrigued by it because I knew that this could open up a big space in terms of adding a new modality in drug discovery that is desperately needed in pharma.”

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Sanofi, Re­gen­eron boast PhI­II win with Dupix­ent in COPD, clear­ing first bar for ex­pan­sion

Dupixent, the blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug from Sanofi and Regeneron, has cleared a high-stakes Phase III study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the companies announced Thursday morning.

If they hold up in a second, identical trial, the data pave the way for Dupixent to become the first biologic to treat patients whose COPD remains uncontrolled despite being on maximal standard-of-care inhaled therapy — the patient population studied in the pivotal program. The companies had spotlighted this as a key readout as they look to expand the Dupixent franchise and explore its full potential.

Genen­tech to stop com­mer­cial man­u­fac­tur­ing at Cal­i­for­nia head­quar­ters

Genentech is halting commercial manufacturing at its California headquarters — and laying off several hundred employees.

The move is the result of a decision Genentech made in 2007 to relocate manufacturing operations from its South San Francisco headquarters location to other facilities or move the work to CDMOs, said Andi Goddard, Genentech’s SVP of quality and compliance for pharmaceutical technical operations, in an interview with Endpoints News. Genentech has made changes in capabilities and invested more in technology, so it doesn’t need as many large-scale manufacturing facilities as it did in the past, she said.

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Chat­G­PT with phar­ma da­ta de­buts for med­ical meet­ings, be­gin­ning with AACR

What do you get when you combine ChatGPT generative AI technology with specific pharma and clinical datasets? A time-saving tool that can answer questions about medical conference abstracts and clinical findings in seconds in one new application from ZoomRx called FermaGPT.

ZoomRx is debuting a public version of its generative AI product specifically for medical conferences beginning this week for the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting that runs April 14-19.

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Quince Ther­a­peu­tics faces takeover bid from share­hold­er Echo Lake Cap­i­tal

A bid to take over the biotech Quince Therapeutics has been put forward by one of its shareholders.

On Tuesday, Echo Lake Capital sent a letter to Quince’s board of directors putting forth a proposal to acquire all the biotech’s stock for $1.60 per share, which would value a takeover at around $58 million.

In the letter, Echo Lake said that it believes Quince’s stock is severely undervalued and that no drugs are being actively marketed or developed that require cash expenditures. It’s trading below the value of its assets, Echo Lake said.

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Flare Therapeutics biochemists Yong Li (L) and Valerie Vivat

A $123M Flare will get Third Rock on­col­o­gy biotech in­to the clin­ic this year

Flare Therapeutics will start its first human trial this year with an investigational urothelial cancer drug after pulling together a $123 million Series B from Big Pharmas, VCs and its incubator, Third Rock Ventures.

Launched in 2021 on the idea that a biotech could finally succeed at drugging the much-sought-after but stubborn transcription factor, Flare Therapeutics said Wednesday it is now primed for the clinic after closing its large financing haul earlier this year. The raise is a relatively stark figure in a tough startup financing environment but further buoys the upbeat signals coming out of other Third Rock biotechs in recent weeks, including the $200 million CARGO Therapeutics and $100 million Rapport Therapeutics rounds.

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In­cyte wins ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval for PD-1 in rare skin can­cer

Incyte touted an accelerated approval for its PD-1 retifanlimab in a rare skin cancer on Wednesday, roughly a year and a half after the drug suffered a rejection in squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCAC).

Retifanlimab, marketed as Zynyz, was approved for metastatic or recurrent locally advanced Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a fast-growing skin cancer typically characterized by a single, painless nodule. It’s roughly 40 times rarer than melanoma, according to the nonprofit Skin Cancer Foundation — but incidence is growing, particularly among older adults, Incyte said in its announcement.