Bay Area's Global Blood Therapeutics, Aimmune Jump on the IPO Wagon Seeking $115 Million Each
July 10, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Two San Francisco area biotech companies announced this week that they will be going public. Global Blood Therapeutics, which focuses on treatments for sickle cell diseases, filed on Wednesday with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to raise $115 million with its IPO. Aimmune, formerly Allergen Research Corp. filed Monday with the SEC and also plans to raise $115 million with its IPO.
Aimmune Therapeutics will be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol AIMT. Book-running managers for the IPO will be BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Piper Jaffray.
Aimmune focuses on immunotherapy for peanut allergies. On June 18, 2015 the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted its therapy, AR101, Breakthrough Therapy Designation. It had previously received FDA Fast Track Designation in September 2014 before the presentation of Phase II trial data.
“We are very grateful for the FDA’s recognition of the large impact AR101 could have in reducing the incidence of life-threatening allergic reactions in people with peanut allergies,” said Stephen Dilly, chief executive officer of Aimmune in a statement. “Currently, there are no approved medical therapies to treat the more than two million children and adolescents in the United States and Europe with peanut allergy who are vulnerable to reactions from accidental exposures.”
Aimmune’s IPO is a little bit of a surprise, given its recent successes in private financing. In March 2015 the company completed an $80 million Series B round led by Foresite Capital with participation from existing investor Longitude Capital. It was joined by new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, Aisling Capital, Adage Capital, RA Capital Management and Palo Alto Investors.
The company completed a $17 million Series A round in November 2013, which was led by Longitude Capital with support from the country’s leading food allergy nonprofit, Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE).
Global Blood Therapeutics has been quite open about its plans to go public by the end of 2016. The company was founded in 2011. It will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol GBT. The joint book runners are Morgan Stanley and Goldman, Sachs & Co..
On Jan. 6, 2015, GBT announced it had closed on a $48 million Series B financing round. The money raised is being used to advance GBT440, a treatment for sickle cell disease. GBT440 moved into a Phase I/II clinical trial after positive results from preclinical testing.
GBT440 is an oral, once-a-day sickle hemoglobin (HbS) modifier. It is designed to actually change the shape of sickle cells.
“We believe that our ongoing GBT440 development program has the potential to demonstrate early proof of concept as soon as the second half of 2015,” said Ted Love, chief executive officer of GBT in a statement. “This potential rapid pathway to early POC was instrumental in helping us secure participation from such a high quality investor syndicate.”
Investors in the Series B round included Wellington Management Company LLP, RA Capital, Deerfield Management, Sabby Capital, Perceptive Life Sciences, an affiliate of Cowen Group and one blue chip public investment fund whose name has not been disclosed.
As New Jersey Biotech Booms, Will It Overtake Other States As Prime Location?
A week after Celgene Corporation announced it is officially the mystery buyer of Merck & Co. ’s former 1 million-square-foot R&D site in Summit, N.J., it quickly became our most popular story last week.
The company announced last Wednesday that it is buying the space, ending months of speculation about what Big Pharma company might move into the neighborhood.
The Summit, N.J. site is zoned research/office. The New Jersey site would put operations closer to some of the major biotech and pharmaceutical hubs on the East Coast.
But, by far, the most tempting part of doing business in the state remains New Jersey’s operating tax credit, which allows companies to sell their net operating losses to the New Jersey Treasury. One of the state’s most recognizable biotechs, Celgene, used the program until it became profitable, which was key to it staying in the state, said local officials.
That has BioSpace is wondering if New Jersey is becoming the new face of biotech. What do you think? Can the Garden State compete with other longtime stalwarts like California or Boston?