Alector, a US-based immunotherapy developer backed by corporate investors Alphabet, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen and Merck & Co, filed on Monday for a $150m initial public offering.
Founded in 2013, Alector is working on immuno-neurology therapies that will treat degenerative brain disorders by addressing dysfunction in the immune system.
Part of the IPO proceeds will fund the completion of phase 1 clinical trials for a frontotemporal dementia treatment known as AL001 and an Alzheimer’s disease candidate called AL002, as well as phase 2 and 3 trials for the former.
Additional capital will support expected phase 1 trials for a second Alzheimer’s therapy, AL003, and a candidate known as AL101 that is being developed to combat multiple neurodegenerative disorders, as well as phase 2 trials for AL002 and AL003.
The offering will come in the wake of at least $195m in equity funding including $133m in a July 2018 series E round featuring all five corporates, which invested through GV, AbbVie Ventures, Lilly Asia Ventures, Amgen Ventures and MRL Ventures respectively.
Polaris Partners, OrbiMed, Mission Bay Capital Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), Deerfield Management, New Leaf Venture Partners, Perceptive Advisors, Casdin Capital, Federated Kaufmann Fund, Section 32, Euclidean Capital, Foresite Capital and unnamed additional backers also took part.
AbbVie Ventures invested seven months after its parent company provided $20m of equity funding for Alector as part of a research, development and commercial collaboration agreement, but it is unclear whether that investment was folded into the series E round.
The July round followed $29.5m in series D funding from MRL Ventures, GV, AbbVie, Polaris Partners, OrbiMed, DDF, Topspin Partners and Mission Bay Capital in 2016.
MRL Ventures had previously led the company’s $32m series C round the year before, investing alongside GV, OrbiMed, Polaris, Mission Bay Capital and Topspin Partners.
Polaris and OrbiMed had originally provided an undisclosed amount of series A funding for Alector in 2013, before Janssen, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, added an undisclosed amount in a series B round the following year.
MRL is the only corporate venture with a stake above 5%, holding a 6% share of the company, whose two largest investors are Polaris (21.7%) and OrbiMed (21.4%).
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Cowen and Company, and Barclays Capital have been appointed underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
