Kyver­na lands $319M IPO as au­toim­mune CAR-T field has its mo­ment in the sun

Cal­i­for­nia biotech Kyver­na Ther­a­peu­tics will gar­ner $319 mil­lion from its Thurs­day morn­ing Nas­daq de­but as it rides a small but wel­come wave of in­vestor en­thu­si­asm for ini­tial pub­lic of­fer­ings.

The mid-stage cell ther­a­py mak­er priced at $22 apiece, sell­ing 14.5 mil­lion shares $KYTX at a val­u­a­tion of about $898 mil­lion.

Per­haps in a sign of in­vestor ap­petite for Kyver­na’s work to bring CAR-T cell ther­a­pies in­to the au­toim­mune world, be­yond their ini­tial prov­ing ground in blood can­cer, the biotech was able to haul in a larg­er chunk of cap­i­tal than it orig­i­nal­ly ex­pect­ed. Last week, the com­pa­ny set out to raise about $182 mil­lion but quick­ly broad­ened that ask to $272 mil­lion on Tues­day. Kyver­na orig­i­nal­ly sought a price range of $17 to $19 last week but upped it to $20 to $21 ear­li­er this week. It went even high­er for the fi­nal pric­ing.

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