US-based cancer therapy developer IGM Biosciences went public yesterday in a $175m initial public offering that scored an exit for catalyst producer Haldor Topsøe.
The company priced more than 10.9 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market at $16.00 each, in the middle of the IPO’s $15 to $17 range, giving it a market capitalisation of approximately $463m.
IGM was formerly known as Palingen before rebranding in 2010 to focus on a platform that produces engineered immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies to treat cancer.
The company will put $45m of the proceeds into clinical development and the expansion of a phase 1 clinical trial of its lead candidate, IGM-2323, which is being developed to treat Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
A further $25m will go to clinical development and investigational new drug-enabling studies for an IgM antibody that will move into the dose escalation part of a phase 1 trial. IGM will use $40m to develop new clinical drug candidates and $25m to expand its manufacturing capabilities.
Undisclosed existing investors in IGM had expressed interest in buying $100m or more of shares in the offering, though it is unclear whether they did so.
Haldor Topsøe provided the funding required for IGM to pivot in 2010 and supplied the vast majority of the $38.5m it raised between 2016 and October 2018 according to the IPO filing. Its stake was diluted from 63% to 39.2% in the offering.
The company added $102m in a July 2019 series C round featuring $30m from Haldor Topsøe, which invested alongside Baker Bros, Redmile Group, Janus Henderson Investors and Vivo Capital.
Baker Bros emerged from the offering with a 7.9% stake, down from 12.1%. IGM’s other notable shareholders post-IPO are Redmile (6.5%) and Janus Capital Management (3.9%).
Joint book-running managers Jefferies, Piper Jaffray, Stifel and Guggenheim Securities have the 30-day option to buy just over 1.64 million additional shares which would lift the size of the IPO to more than $201m. Its shares are trading at $24.30 at time of publication.
