Singapore-based oncology therapy developer Aslan Pharmaceuticals, which counts corporates Accuron, Tianda Pharmaceuticals and Advanced Materials Technologies (AMT) as investors, has raised $42.2m in an initial public offering in the US.
Aslan priced 6 million American Depositary Shares, each representing five common shares, at $7.03 each last week. The IPO’s underwriters have the 30-day option to buy another 900,000 ADSs, which would increase the size of the offering to approximately $48.6m.
Aslan is working on treatments for orphan diseases in the US and Europe, and diseases that are highly prevalent in Asia. It will use $23.5m of the IPO proceeds to fund clinical trials in biliary tract cancer and gastric cancer for its lead drug candidate, varlitinib.
Additional cash will support a clinical trial for two other candidates: ASLAN003, in acute myeloid leukaemia, and ASLAN004, a receptor antibody being developed as a treatment for asthma and severe atopic dermatitis.
The offering comes after Aslan received approximately $33m in an IPO in Taiwan in June 2017. It has raised about $100m in venture funding, including a $2m investment by manufacturing services provider AMT in 2016.
Aslan had closed a $43m series C round featuring engineering technology producer Accuron, pharmaceutical company Tianda, Bioveda Capital, Cenova Ventures, Haitong International, Morningside Ventures, MVP Capital Partners and Sagamore Bioventures in January the same year.
Daiwa Securities subsidiary Daiwa Taiwan-Japan Biotech Fund subsequently joined TopTaiwan, KGI Venture Capital, Taya Ventures, Milestone Capital and China Galaxy to invest $23m in Aslan in July 2016.
AMT’s 1.6% stake was diluted to 1.3% in the offering. Aslan’s largest investors are Alnair Investment, a subsidiary of investment firm Cenova, which has a 6.2% stake post-IPO, and BioVeda Capital vehicle BV Healthcare, which came out with a 4.7% share.
Leerink Partners and Piper Jaffray are the joint book-running managers for the IPO while BTIG, HC Wainwright and CLSA are co-managers.
Aslan had initially filed to raise up to $86.3m in March this year. Its stock is $6.25 at the time of publication, giving it a market capitalisation of just over $174m.