In a big day of setting up IPOs for launch, the charge is being led by Royalty Pharma, a buyer of biopharmaceutical royalties and an industry funder, which is aiming at a $2 billion offering. That massive number is more than half of the total biotech offerings brought in through May.
Money raised through biopharma financings so far in 2020 is double the amount raised within the same timeframe of 2019, partly due to two large financings completed in May by Sanofi SA, which is working on candidates to treat or prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
American depositary shares in CAR T-focused Legend Biotech Corp. (NASDAQ:LEGN), offered in a red hot IPO at $23 each, took off Friday, rising 60.9% to close at $37 per share. Other offerings June 5, a buoyant day for U.S. markets after a surprising drop in unemployment, raised $154 million for cellular trafficking specialist Applied Molecular Transport Inc. and $90 million for Calliditas Therapeutics AB, the developer of an oral formulation of the corticosteroid budesonide.
The pandemic hasn't kept biotechs from going public. In fact, through the first five or so months of the year, the industry has raised more than $3.3 billion through IPOs, more capital than biotechs have raised during the first five months of any of the previous 20 years.
HONG KONG – South Korean conglomerate SK Group is preparing to list its subsidiary, SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., on the Stock Market Division of the Korea Exchange.
BEIJING – Androgen receptor (AR)-related disease specialist Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd., of Suzhou, China, raised $240 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on May 22 by issuing 92.3 million shares at HK$20.15 apiece. The IPO was oversubscribed by 551 times, showing the city’s biotech fever.
Coming out of the IPO gate strong was Lausanne, Switzerland-based ADC Therapeutics SA, which priced about 12 million shares at $19 each, for gross proceeds of about $232.7 million in an upsized deal. Shares (NYSE:ADCT) ended the day at $29.65, up $10.65, or 56%.
BEIJING – Androgen receptor (AR)-related disease specialist Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd., of Suzhou, China, is looking to raise up to HK$1.861 billion (US$240 million) in a Hong Kong IPO to advance its small-molecule AR antagonists, proxalutamide and pyrilutamide, both of which have first- and best-in-class potential.
Although, the appetite for biopharma IPOs in the U.S. slowed during the meltdown of the financial markets in March, the flow of new offerings has been steady this year, according to BioWorld, with 11 companies graduating to the public stage and listing on U.S. exchanges by the end of April, collectively raising $1.774 billion along the way. This amount is 9.5% higher than the $1.62 billion raised from 15 U.S. biopharma IPOs completed in the same period last year.
Despite a global pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the overall economy, biopharma financings and grants during the month of April have shown solid numbers.
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