The two biotech companies announced initial public offering pricing Thursday, respectively, with shares beginning trading Friday and valued at more than $560 million cumulatively.
Pictured: The NASDAQ building in New York City/iStock, hapabapa
In a sign that the initial public offering market may be heating up for biotech companies, radiopharma-focused RayzeBio and neuroscience biopharma Neumora Therapeutics announced IPO pricing Thursday, bringing in more than $560 million combined.
At $18 per share, RayzeBio’s pricing of 17.2 million shares was valued at $311 million. Neumora priced its 14.7 million shares at $17 each to bring in $250 million.
While 111 biotechs, including pre-clinical and early-stage companies, went public in 2021 breaking all previous records, that trend came to a halt in 2022 and 2023. Last year saw just 21 biotech and pharma companies hitting the NASDAQ, and this year has been trending much the same.
So far in 2023, 16 companies, including the two announced this week, have gone public. Acelyrin takes top prize with its $540 million IPO, while RayzeBio comes in second currently on the list for total proceeds.
Both RayzeBio and Neumora have candidates in Phase III trials. The former launched ACTION-1 in late May, evaluating its radiopharmaceutical therapy against standard of care for patients with SSTR-positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The company skipped Phase II, feeling confident even though they’ve yet to provide efficacy updates on the Phase Ib trial. The estimated primary completion of the Phase III is slated for July 2025.
With a new CEO at the helm, Neumora moved its major depressive disorder (MDD) treatment into Phase III this summer. The study focuses on moderate-to-severe MDD patients, the population in whom the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist seems most effective. Per FDA recommendations, Neumora is launching three studies over three quarters with an open label extension for long-term safety. If successful, an NDA is expected in 2025.
Both companies had already garnered impressive investor raises with RayzeBio attracting over $400 million in private investments. Neumora had previously brought in over $600 million, with big name investors like ARCH and Amgen.
This summer, biotech analyst Chris Dokomajilar, founder and CEO of DealForma Database, predicted more IPOs in the second half of 2023. This week’s announcements could spell the beginning of an uptick in activity for the sector.
Kate Goodwin is a freelance life science writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. She can be reached at kate.goodwin@biospace.com and on LinkedIn.
