Four biotech companies recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission their plans for initial public offerings (IPO). Let’s take a look.
Four biotech companies recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission their plans for initial public offerings (IPO). Let’s take a look.
Bicycle Therapeutics. Based in Cambridge, UK and Boston, Mass., Bicycle Therapeutics filed on April 26 for an IPO to raise $86 million. The company’s proprietary product platform are bicyclic peptides, called Bicycle. On April 24, the company announced with Oxurion, full enrollment of Oxurion’s Phase I clinical trial of THR-149, a novel Bicycle-based plasma kallikrein (PKal) inhibitor for diabetic macular edema (DME). Activation of this enzyme causes retinal vascular permeability, microaneurysm and inflammation.
“Patients with DME have elevated levels of PKal,” stated Patrik De Haes, Oxurion’s chief executive officer. “Our goal in this Phase I trial is to evaluate the safety of a single intravitreal injection of THR-149, a novel Bicycle-based PKal inhibitor, in subjects with visual impairment due to DME.”
Bicycle’s own lead compound is BT1718, a Bicycle Toxin Conjugate to treat Membrane Type 1 matrix metalloprotease-expressing tumors. Interim data from a Phase I clinical trial is expected in the second half of this year.
Peloton Therapeutics. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas and San Francisco, Peloton filed a preliminary prospectus for a $115 million IPO. The company’s lead product candidate is PT2977 for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). It plans to begin enrollment in a Phase III clinical trial in the second half of this year. The drug is also currently in Phase II for an inherited disease called von Hippel-Lindau disease-associated RCC.
On February 20, the company closed an oversubscribed Series E financing worth $150 million. It was led by RA Capital Management and joined by new investors, Eventide Asset Management, Biotechnology Value Fund, OrbiMed, EcoR1 Capital, Vida Ventures, Curative Ventures and Driehaus Capital Management. Existing investors also participated, including The Column Group, Nextech Invest, Topspin Fund, Tichenor Ventures and Foresite Capital Management.
IDEAYA Biosciences. IDEAYA filed for a $70 million IPO. The company is located in South San Francisco and focuses on precision oncology. On March 29, the company announced that Novartis was presenting a poster from an ongoing clinical trial of IDE196 as a potential monotherapy in metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM) at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Atlanta on April 1. IDE196, which Novartis dubs LXS196, is a potent small molecule protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor that IDEAYA plans to develop for cancers with GNA and GNA11 mutations. IDEAYA licensed the technology from Novartis.
Karuna Pharmaceuticals. Based in Boston, Karuna has filed for an IPO. No financial details have been released. To date, the company has raised $122 million in two venture rounds, the most recent only a few weeks ago for $80 million. It raised $42 million in a Serie A round in August 2018. It is backed by PureTech Health. The new round came from Sofinnova Investments, which joined ARCH Venture Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Eventide Asset Management, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Partner Fund Management, Wellcome Trust, Sands Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments and PureTech. Late this year, the company expects data from a Phase II clinical trial of KarXT xanomeline/trospium chloride, a muscarinic receptor modulator, to treat acute psychosis associated with schizophrenia.
“The significant funding of Karuna’s Series B will allow our team to further explore KarXT’S therapeutic benefit in new indications outside of our ongoing Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of acute psychosis in patients with schizophrenia, including geriatric psychosis and pain and advanced development of novel KarXT formulations and our early stage discovery pipeline,” stated Steve Paul, Karuna’s chairman and chief executive officer.
