Weeks after raising $40M, Celgene-partnered Inhibrx lays groundwork for nearly $75M public debut
Celgene-partnered biotech Inhibrx has had a busy 2019 so far. The La Jolla, California-based company kicked off an early-stage oncology study, partnered with bluebird bio, signed a pact with Italy’s Chiesi Group and secured a $40 million venture capital injection. On Monday, it laid the groundwork for a roughly $75 million IPO.
Inhibrx is developing a plethora of biologics — it has three oncology programs in human clinical trials, a rare disease program, for which it expects to initiate a human study in the third quarter of 2019, as well as two preclinical drugs.
Its lead experimental drug targets death receptor 5, or DR5, and is designed to treat multiple tumor types, including difficult-to-treat gastrointestinal tumors and mesothelioma both as a monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy. It is currently being investigated in an early stage trial in patients with solid tumors including sarcomas, and the readout of that study is expected in the second half of this year.
Global rights to Inhibrx’s drug, INBRX-103, targeting CD47 — which protects tumor cells from being engulfed by macrophages — have been licensed to Celgene $CELG. Meanwhile, it has entered into an option agreement with Chiesi for development and commercialization rights outside of North America for INBRX-101 — which is being developed for the rare respiratory disease Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency.
Now, Inhibrx is looking to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “$INBX” and raise $74.75 million in the IPO. In a separate private placement concurrent with the offering, Chiesi is buying $10 million worth of Inhibrx shares, according to Inhibrx’s filing.
Last month, Inhibrx raised $40 million from Viking Global Investors — altogether the company has so far raised $205 million since its inception. Other investors in the biotech include RA Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, ArrowMark Partners, WuXi Biologics and Alexandria.
Image: Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects (FPBA)