Maze’s IPO comes on the heels of its oversubscribed Series D funding round, which infused the biotech with $115 million in funding to support the development of its kidney disease pipeline.
Following a lull in the latter half of 2024, IPO activity could once again be picking up for biopharma, with Maze Therapeutics on Tuesday launching its bid to debut on the Nasdaq Global Market.
The California-based biotech has yet to specify how many shares it will put up for sale or how much it wants to raise in its offering, nor has it announced a target date for closing the IPO. Once complete, Maze will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol $MAZE.
According to its SEC filing, Maze will use the IPO proceeds to support the development of its lead assets MZE829 and MZE782, both of which are orally available drug candidates being tested for chronic kidney disease (CKD).
MZE829, the biotech’s most mature program, works by inhibiting apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) and is being studied specifically for APOL1 kidney disease, a subclass of CKD. Approximately 1 million patients in the U.S. suffer from this condition, as per Maze’s IPO filing. In October 2024, the biotech reported Phase I first-in-human data for MZE829, spotlighting its encouraging safety profile even at high doses, as well as a pharmacokinetic profile that supports daily dosing.
The biotech kicked off a Phase II study for MZE829 a month later, with plans to dose the first patient in the first quarter of this year. Initial proof-of-concept data are expected in the first quarter of 2026.
Maze’s second lead program, MZE782, blocks the solute transporter SLC6A19, which is a novel target for CKD and has “the potential to address approximately five million of the CKD patients in the United States with inadequate responses to currently available CKD therapies,” according to the biotech’s SEC filing. MZE782 is currently in a Phase I trial, with initial data set to come in later this year.
Maze is also advancing MZE782 for phenylketonuria (PKU), a genetic metabolic disease, for which the biotech has an ongoing Phase I study and plans to run a parallel mid-stage trial. The funds raised from Tuesday’s IPO will also help support MZE782’s PKU development.
Aside from supporting its kidney disease programs, Maze plans to use its IPO proceeds to fund the development of other programs in cardiovascular, renal and metabolism indications. These projects include preclinical studies and trials to enable Investigational New Drug applications.
Maze’s IPO bid comes just over a month after it closed an oversubscribed Series D funding round with $115 million in earnings. That raise was co-led by Deep Track Capital and Frazier Life Sciences and drew support from existing investors including Third Rock Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital.
