Redwood City, California-based cancer therapy developer Revolution Medicines raised $238m in an IPO on the Nasdaq Global Market.
Sanofi had become a backer and shareholder when it acquired Warp Drive Bio, a genomic medicine developer co-founded by the pharmaceutical firm, in an all-share deal in 2018. Subsidiary Sanofi Research Invest held a 7.8% stake in the company but it was diluted to 5.9% in the offering.
Revolution priced its shares at the top of the $15 to $17 range, which it had increased from the original $14 to $16. The company also increased the number of shares from 10 million to 14 million. The price surged 70% on their first day of trading and closed at $28.90, valuing Revolution at just under $1.65bn.
Joint book-running managers JPMorgan, Cowen, Guggenheim Securities and SVB Leerink have the opportunity to buy a further 2.1 million shares which could up the size of the offering to nearly $274m.
Founded in 2014, Revolution develops therapies for a range of cancer indications. It is focusing on inhibitors of frontier targets, proteins that play an important role in cancer but for which no treatment exists, or where therapies do not suppress all factors contributing to cancer growth. Its lead asset, RMC-4630, is being co-developed with Sanofi and is undergoing phase 1/2 trials.
The company is part of the broader oncology tech space which has received much attention from corporate investors. Both the number of deals and the total estimated capital in the sector have been rising since 2014, when there were 35 deals worth $725m. The record number of deals was last year at 84 but the total dollar value peak was $4.94bn in 2018.
