Armo Biosciences, a US-based immuno-oncology therapy developer that counts pharmaceutical company Celgene and internet technology group Alphabet as investors, has raised $128m in its initial public offering.
The IPO consisted of just over 7.5 million shares issued on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $17.00 each, above the $14 to $16 range set by Armo. The amount of shares in the offering was also increased from approximately 6.7 million.
Founded in 2012, Armo is working on immuno-oncology treatments and intends to invest $35m of the IPO proceeds in advancing its lead drug candidate, AM0010, for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, a condition for which it is set to enter phase 3 clinical trials.
An additional $35m will go to phase 2b trials for AM0010 in non-small cell lung cancer while the rest of the proceeds will be used to research the drug for additional cancer indications, and to develop the company’s product pipeline.
The offering came after roughly $167m in equity financing, including $67.6m in an August 2017 series C-1 round that featured Celgene and a $7.5m investment by Alphabet’s GV subsidiary.
Venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners led the round, which also featured Decheng Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), OrbiMed, DAG Ventures, NanoDimension, Sequoia Capital, Quan Capital, RTW Investments, HBM Healthcare Investments and funds advised by Clough Capital Partners.
GV and Celgene also took part in a $49.5m round for Armo in early 2016, investing alongside HBM Healthcare, Industrial Investors Group, private funds advised by Clough Capital Partners and existing backers DAG Ventures, NanoDimension, KPCB and OrbiMed.
Certain shareholders agreed to buy $12.8m of Armo shares in the IPO, but apart from NanoDimension which purchased 23,000 shares, the company has not revealed their identities.
Celgene owned less than 5% of the company but GV, like Decheng, held a 5.6% stake that was diluted to 4.2% in the offering.
Other notable investors include KPCB, which came out of the offering with a 14.6% stake, OrbiMed (14.1%), DAG Ventures (8.2%) and NanoDimension (7.5%).
Jefferies, Leerink Partners and BMO Capital Markets are joint book-running managers for the IPO while Baird is co-manager. They have the 30-day option to buy more than 1.1 million additional shares, which would increase the size of the offering to just over $147m.
Armo’s stock began trading at $28.00 on Friday and closed at $29.75 yesterday, giving the company a market cap of about $845m.