Alex Philippidis Senior News Editor Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Number of Companies Going Public, and the Amount They Raise, Show Growth

Renaissance Capital didn’t mince words when it headlined its most recent quarterly review of initial public offering (IPO) trends during the second quarter of this year, “Most Active IPO Market in Three Years.”

During the second quarter, biotechs accounted for one-third (20) of the 60 U.S. companies recorded by Renaissance as having gone public, compared with 13 during Q2 2017. PwC listed 24 companies in the “pharma and life sciences” sector—which includes medical tech—as having raised $2.5 billion during Q2 2018, up from the $1 billion raised by 13 such companies in the second three months of 2017.

Over the first half of this year, GEN found 36 biopharmas having begun selling shares, or American Depositary Shares, on exchanges worldwide. Below is a list of the 10 largest biotech IPOs that were completed, or at least began trading shares, as of June 30. Each IPO is listed by name of company, amount raised (usually net proceeds), date of completion, number of shares sold, and price per share, trading symbol, and market(s) where shares are traded. Non-U.S. currency has been converted to U.S. dollars. 

Interestingly, this year’s top 10 IPOs raised a combined $1.797 billion in net proceeds—up 6.5% from the $1.687 billion in net proceeds garnered by the top 10 of January–June 2017, as reported by GEN last year. While the combined total didn’t rise too dramatically year-over-year, every company on this year’s top-10 IPO list raised more than $100 million, compared with the top seven of January–June 2017.

Not included on this list are pending IPOs that have been filed by companies but have yet to be priced or commence trading, as well as IPOs that have been publicly discussed—whether by executives or in news reports—but not yet filed.

The most recent example of a company in the former category at deadline was Vaccinex, which filed an S-1 registration statement disclosing its intent to raise up to $46 million. Vaccinex is a developer of therapies targeting semaphorin 4D (SEMA4D) as a potential treatment for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, or autoimmune disorders. The company seeks to trade its shares on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol VCNX. Other examples of companies that filed for IPOs during 2018, but which had yet to launch them at deadline, include AOBiome Therapeutics, Innovent Biolgics, Mereo BioPharma, PolyPid, Stealth Biotherapeutics.

As for IPOs publicly discussed by executives, one such example is Nant, a company which billionaire entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., told Reuters he is forming to take public, with the goal of developing a pipeline of cancer treatments. That pipeline includes ganitumab, a Phase III monoclonal antibody which Dr. Soon-Shiong’s NantCell is developing under a license agreement with Amgen.

Another publicly discussed IPO in the making is Shanghai-based Hua Medicine, which announced last month that its application for an IPO was approved by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. The diabetes drug developer did not disclose how much it intends to raise. Published news reports have Hua raising anywhere from $200 million (South China Morning Post) to “at least $400 million” (Reuters).

Two other nine-figure IPOs could not be included: At deadline, the IPO for Translate Bio that launched on June 28 had not been completed. As a result, it was not known if the offering would include up to an additional 1,402,500 shares of common stock for which underwriters have a 30-day option expiring later this month—which the company estimated last month would increase its net proceeds to $125.9 million, and thus make Translate Bio a top-10 IPO. If the shares are not part of the offering, the estimated net proceeds would be approximately $109 million, and therefore not a top-10 IPO.

Also excluded was the IPO that would have ranked eighth had the company not been acquired by Eli Lilly. Armo BioSciences, the developer of a Phase III cancer candidate AM0010 (pegilodecakin), raised $133.2 million in net proceeds in its January 26 IPO, which came nearly four months before Lilly announced May 10 that it was buying the company for approximately $1.6 billion, in a deal completed June 22.

#10. Arcus Biosciences

#10. Arcus Biosciences

Market (Symbol): New York Stock Exchange (RCUS)

Amount: $124.7 million in net proceeds 1

Date: March 15

Shares/Price per share: 9.2 million shares at $15 1

#9. Menlo Therapeutics

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Select Market (MNLO)

Amount: Approximately $125.5 million in net proceeds 2

Date: January 25

Shares/Price per share: 8.05 million shares at $17. 2

#8. Solid Biosciences

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Select Market (SLDB)

Amount: Approximately $133.7 million in net proceeds 3

Date: January 26

Shares/Price per share: 8,984,375 shares at $16 3

#7. Homology Medicines

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Select Market (FIXX)

Amount: $151.0 million in net proceeds 4

Date: March 28

Shares/Price per share: 1.35 million shares at $16 4

#6. Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Select Market (KNSA)

Amount:  Approximately $154.95 million in estimated net proceeds 5

Date: May 24

Shares/Price per share: 9,484,202 shares at $18 5

#5. Autolus Therapeutics

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Select Market (AUTL)

Amount: $160.4 million in aggregate net proceeds 6

Date: June 22

Shares/Price per share: 10,147,059 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $17 6

#4. Polyphor

Market (Symbol): SIX Swiss Exchange (POLN)

Amount: CHF 165.0 million ($166.3 million) in gross proceeds 7

Date: May 15

Shares/Price per share: 4,342,110 shares at CHF 38.00 ($38.30) 7

#3. MorphoSys

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Market (MOR) 8

Amount: Approximately €177 million ($207.9 million) in net proceeds 9

Date: April 19

Shares/Price per share: 2.075 million new ordinary shares, consisting of 8.3 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $25.04 per ADS. 9

#2. Tricida

Market (Symbol): NASDAQ Global Select Market (TCDA)

Amount: Approximately $232.7 million in estimated net proceeds 10

Date: June 28

Shares/Price per share: 13,455,000 shares at $19 10

#1. WuXi AppTec

Market (Symbol): Shanghai Stock Exchange (603259)

Amount: RMB 2.251 billion ($339.4 million) 11

Date: May 7

Shares/Price per share: 104,198,600 shares at RMB 21.60 ($3.26) 11

References
1 Includes an additional 1.2 million shares, for which underwriters exercised in full their 30-day over-allotment option to purchase from the company at the same price per share. Arcus disclosed net proceeds in a May 9 press release announcing the company’s first quarter 2018 results.
2 Includes an additional 1.05 million shares, for which underwriters exercised in full their 30-day over-allotment option to purchase from the company at the same price per share. Arcus disclosed net proceeds in a March 28 press release announcing the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2017 results.
3 Includes an additional 1,171,875 shares, for which underwriters exercised in full their 30-day over-allotment option to purchase from the company at the same price per share. Solid disclosed net proceeds in a January 30 press release announcing the closing of the IPO.
4 Includes an additional 1,171,875 shares, for which underwriters exercised in full their 30-day over-allotment option to purchase from the company at the same price per share. Homology disclosed net proceeds in a May 14 press release announcing the company’s first quarter 2018 results.
5 Includes partial exercise by underwriters of the over-allotment option for an additional 1,006,425 shares at the IPO price. The underwriters could have purchased up to an additional 1,271,666 shares at the IPO price. Had the underwriters exercised that option in full, Kiniksa has estimated it would have gained approximately $159.4 million in net proceeds in its prospectus, in which the company also estimated its net proceeds for the original offer at $138.1 million. The furnished estimate consists of the original estimate plus 79.1% of the difference between the two estimates, since the over-allotment was 79.1% of the potential total.
6 Includes an additional 1,323,529 additional ADSs, for which underwriters exercised in full their 30-day over-allotment option to purchase from the company at the same price per ADS. Autolus offered a net-proceeds figure in a June 26 press release announcing the closing of the IPO.
7 Includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their overallotment option to purchase up to 263,160 additional shares of common stock from the Company at the IPO price. The company’s announcements do not include net proceeds figures, which may be disclosed when half-year 2018 financial results are published on September 6.
8 IPO covered company’s ADSs; company continues to trade shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, under the symbol MOR.
9 Includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their overallotment option to purchase up to 311,250 additional new ordinary shares in the form of 1.245 million additional ADSs at the IPO price. MorphoSys disclosed net proceeds in its May 3 conference call to discuss first quarter 2018 results.
10 Includes an additional 1,755,000 shares of common stock, for which underwriters exercised in full their 30-day over-allotment option to purchase from the company at the same price per share. Company offered its net proceeds estimate in its prospectus.
11 Net proceeds had not been disclosed at deadline. At the time of the IPO, numerous news reports stated WuXi AppTec raised $354 million in gross proceeds. The figure reported with this list reflects the change since then in the exchange rate of the renminbi compared to the U.S. dollar.

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