3 Biotechs Seeking $271M IPO in the New Year

Individuals aren’t the only ones making New Year’s Resolutions. Three biotech companies want to start out the new year with a new start—as publicly traded companies.

These three biotechs have announced plans for initial public offerings (IPO).

1. Solid Biosciences

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Solid is focused on developing a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a muscle-wasting disease that primary affects boys, and is often fatal in their early twenties. The company initiated a Phase I/II clinical trial, IGNITE DMD, on Nov. 30, 2017 for SGT-001, a microdytrophin gene transfer candidate.

"For more than 20 years, my team has focused our research on understanding the potential of microdystrophin in DMD and optimizing a construct that we believe will provide the most benefit for patients," said Jeffrey Chamberlin, professor, Department of Neurology and professor, Department of Biochemistry, and professor of Medicine, Division of Medical Genetics at the University of Washington, in a statement. "I’m pleased to see Solid advance the most compelling of constructs into clinical studies. I believe we are now at an inflection point where, if successful, SGT-001 should represent an innovative new way of treating patients with this devastating disease."

In a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Solid is looking to raise $100 million with an IPO.

2. resTORbio

Based in Boston, resTORbio’s lead program focuses on treating diseases related to aging. Its RTB101 is an oral, small molecule TORC1 inhibitor, designed to improve immune function. On Nov. 20, 2017, the company announced that an independent Data Monitoring Committee unanimously recommended advancing its ongoing Phase IIb trial to Part 2 of the study, which is a dose-ranging evaluation of RTB101. The focus of this drug is on treating respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in the elderly. RTB101 is being evaluated alone and in combination with Novartis' Afinitor. Topline data is expected in the second half of this year.

The company has filed with the SEC for an IPO to raise $85 million. On Nov. 30, 2017, it raised $40 million from a Series B financing led by OrbiMed, which also included Fidelity Management & Research Company, Rock Springs Capital, Quan Capital and Next Bio.

3. ARMO BioSciences

Located in Redwood City, Calif., ARMO released additional data from its clinical trial of AM0010 (pegilodecakin) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) on Dec. 9, 2017. In the 27 patients who had already received a median of two previous therapies and who received AM0010 in combination with either nivolumab or pembrolizumab, it showed a durable rate of tumor shrinking of 41 percent.

"We have observed ORRs for AM0010 in combination with anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors that are higher than reported for immune checkpoint inhibitors alone at all levels of PD-L1 expression," said Joseph Leveque, ARMO’s chief medical officer, in a statement. "We also are encouraged by responses in patients with liver metastases and low tumor mutational burden (TMB), two subsets of patients that are less responsive to current therapies. Six of eight patients with NSCLC metastases to the liver had a reduction of the liver metastases of more than 50 percent. Five of eight patients (62.5%) with low or intermediate TMB had a tumor reduction of at least 50 percent."

The company filed for an IPO on Dec. 29, 2017 and plans to raise $86 million.