Lava Therapeutics, a Netherlands-based immuno-oncology therapy developer that counts pharmaceutical companies Biox Biosciences, Novo, Sanofi and Merck & Co among its shareholders, has raised approximately $101m in a US initial public offering.
The offering consisted of 6.7 million shares priced at $15.00 each, in the middle of the $14 to $16 range set by the company. It floated on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and its shares closed at $12.70 yesterday.
Founded in 2016, Lava is working on bispecific antibody treatments intended to engage the immune system in destroying cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
The company was spun off by Biox and its technology is based on Hans van der Vliet’s research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam’s university hospital affiliate, Amsterdam University Medical Centers.
Lava plans to put $85m of the proceeds and its existing cash on hand into progressing its lead drug candidate, AVA-051, for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukaemia.
An additional $40m will go to LAVA 206×207, a prospective treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, while $10m will support work on potential drugs for haematologic malignancies and solid tumours.
The offering follows nearly $103m in funding, the most recent being an $83m series C round in September 2020 co-led by Novo and Sanofi through their Novo Ventures and Sanofi Ventures subsidiaries.
The series C round also featured Merck & Co’s MRL Ventures Fund, Redmile Group, Ysios Capital, BB Pureos Bioventures, Versant Ventures and Gilde Healthcare.
Gilde Healthcare and Versant Ventures co-led Lava’s $18.6m series B round in 2018, investing alongside MRL Ventures Fund, Biox and Lupus Ventures – the last two having provided $1.2m in series A financing two years earlier.
Versant Ventures and Gilde Healthcare each held a 22.2% stake which was diluted to 16.6% in the offering. Lava’s other notable investors are Novo (11.7% post-IPO), Sanofi and Redmile Group (7% each), Ysios Capital (4.7%) and MRL Ventures Fund (4.3%).
Joint book-running managers JP Morgan, Jefferies and SVB Leerink and lead manager Kempen & Co have the 30-day option to purchase up to 1 million additional shares, which would boost the size of the offering to approximately $116m.
