Switzerland-based oncology therapy developer ADC Therapeutics went public on Friday having raised almost $233m in an initial public offering, nine years after it was spun off from pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
The company issued more than 12.2 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, upsized from nearly 10.3 million. They were priced at $19.00 each, above the $16 to $18 range it had set earlier in the week.
Spun off from AstraZeneca subsidiary Spirogen, ADC is developing antibody drug conjugates to combat haematological malignancies and solid tumours.
The company has three haematology-focused drug candidates – Lonca, Cami and ADCT-602 – in development. Lonca has gone through a phase 2 clinical trial while Cami is currently in phase 2 trials. Cami and a candidate called ADCT-601 are in clinical trials for solid tumours.
ADC had initially filed for its IPO in September 2019 before withdrawing it the following month, having planned to price almost 8.2 million shares between $23 and $26 each.
The offering comes in the wake of $531m in funding, including $40m in a 2013 round featuring $20m from AstraZeneca subsidiary MedImmune and additional capital from Auven Therapeutics, the private equity firm that helped found the company.
AstraZeneca, Auven and unnamed US and European investors supplied a further $80m for ADC in 2015 before both joined Wild Family Office and undisclosed new and existing backers to provide $105m the following year.
The company completed a $276m series E round in June 2019 backed by AstraZeneca, Auven, Wild Family Office, Redmile Group and unnamed other participants.
Auven remains ADC’s largest shareholder post-IPO, with a 33.7% stake, while AstraZeneca’s stake was cut from 6.7% to 5.5%. Other notable investors are HPWH (8.7% post-IPO) and Redmile Alpha (4.7%).
Joint book-running managers Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities and Cowen have the 30-day option to buy nearly 1.84 million additional shares which would boost the size of the offering to more than $267m. ADC’s shares opened at $30 on Friday and closed at $29.65, giving it a market capitalisation of just over $2bn.
