Arcus Biosciences, a US-based immuno-oncology therapy developer backed by several corporates, will raise $120m from its initial public offering when it floats on the New York Stock Exchange later today.
The company, which counts internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet and pharmaceutical firms Novartis, Celgene and Taiho among its investors, priced its stock at $15.00 yesterday, at the top of the IPO’s $13 to $15 range, and will issue 8 million shares, up from 7.1 million.
Founded in 2015, Arcus is developing immunotherapies that will fight cancer by triggering the body’s immune system. It will put $55m of the IPO proceeds into clinical development of its two lead drug candidates, AB928 and AB122.
The company expects to generate clinical data for both candidates later this year, and will use the rest of the proceeds from the offering to advance two more, an inhibitor of the CD73 enzyme and an antibody treatment, into the clinic.
The IPO comes after $227m in funding, the first of which came in a $49.7m series A round in 2015 that included Celgene, Novartis, Foresite Capital, Column Group and various friends and family.
Alphabet subsidiary GV paid $25m to lead a $70m series B round for Arcus in 2016 that also featured Taiho’s strategic investment arm, Taiho Ventures, Column Group, Foresite, Invus Opportunities, Droia Oncology Ventures and Stanford University.
Arcus added $107m in series D funding from GV, Celgene, Taiho Ventures, Column Group, Foresite, Invus, Droia, Wellington Management, EcoR1 Capital, BVF Partners, Decheng Capital, Hillhouse, Aisling Capital and entities affiliated with Leerink Partners in November 2017.
GV is the company’s largest shareholder, with a 14.3% stake pre-offering. Other notable investors are Column Group (10%) and Foresite Capital (9.8%).
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Leerink Partners are joint book-running managers for the IPO. They have a 30-day option to purchase another 1.2 million shares, which would increase its size to $138m.
Arcus was founded by Terry Rosen and Juan Jaen, also the co-founders of Flexus Biosciences, the cancer treatment developer acquired by Celgene for up to $1.25bn in early 2015.