
Vor leads a new pack of IPOs to price, continuing steady stream of companies making leap to the Nasdaq
Six of the 10 biotechs that were expected to price their IPOs this week have now officially made the jump onto the Nasdaq, continuing a record pace dating back to 2020.
Vor Biopharma, Siddhartha Mukherjee’s cell therapy startup, officially priced its 9,828,017 shares of common stock Friday at $18 per share, raising $176.9 million. Vor’s IPO, trading under the ticker $VOR, will close Feb. 9, with Goldman Sachs, Evercore ISI, Barclays and Stifel operating as bookrunners.
Vor said in earlier SEC filings that it would use the IPO filing to advance the two components of its platform: A CAR-T for AML and a genetically engineered stem cell transplant that makes the CAR-T safer, by removing from healthy cells the protein it targets. Also of note, Vor exceeded both its initial company shares and the estimated price point it listed in earlier filings.
Joining Vor this week was Landos Biopharma, the Chris Garabedian-backed oral autoimmune company, and Evaxion Biotech, a Denmark-headquartered company using AI immunotherapies to target cancer and infectious diseases.
Landos raised the second most of the three new Nasdaq additions, pricing its 6,250,000 common shares at $16 per share for an initial haul of $100 million. Landos’ IPO, under the ticker $LABP, will close on Feb. 8 with JP Morgan, Jefferies and SVB Leerink as the bookrunners. Landos will offer underwriters a 30-day option of buying another 937,500 common shares at the $16 price point.
Landos’ offering will be one to keep an eye on, as initial filings indicated a key focus moving forward will be its lead molecule BT-11, which is now focused on ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease but missed on all its primary endpoints in IBD during a Phase II proof-of-concept study.
And Evaxion will offer 3,000,000 shares at a price of $10 per share after raising $30 million, the company said. Trading under the ticker $EVAX, the IPO will close on Feb 9 with underwriters having a 30-day option of snapping up another 450,000 ADSs at the IPO price point. Oppenheimer & Co. is operating as the sole bookrunner on the deal.
Early filings show that Evaxion plans on using the IPO to fund four different programs in its portfolio —most notably its lead candidate EVX-01, a personal immunotherapy that uses an AI platform to identify the best protein targets in each patient. It’s in Phase I/IIa for three different cancers, where it’s being tested in combo with PD-1 blockers.
For ongoing tracking of biotech IPOs in 2021, check out Endpoints News’ database here.