BioAtla, a US-based oncology therapy backed by for pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, went public yesterday in a $189m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.
The company increased the number of shares in the offering from 9.4 million to 10.5 million and priced them at $18.00 each, above the IPO’s $15 to $17 range. Its shares opened at $30.55 on their first day of trading and closed at $31.02, valuing it at $996m.
Founded in 2007, BioAtla is developing antibody-based therapeutics to treat solid tumours. It will put $40m to $60m into advancing each of its two lead candidates, BA3011 and BA3021, through phase 2 clinical trials.
BA3011 is set to be trialled with soft tissue and bone sarcoma patients in one test and one with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), while BA3021 is targeted at NSCLC and melanoma. Up to $30m will fund work on BioAtla’s first two bispecific conditionally active biologics candidates.
Soleus Capital and HBM Healthcare Investments co-led a $72.5m series D round for the company featuring Pfizer subsidiary Pfizer Ventures in July this year that lifted its total debt and equity financing to approximately $166m.
Cormorant Asset Management, Farallon Capital, Pappas Capital, Boxer Capital and funds managed by Janus Henderson also took part in the round. Global Bio Impact Fund had supplied $45m for the company in 2016 and Pfizer took part in the series D as an existing backer.
Himalaya Parent, a vehicle formed by several BioAtla shareholders, remains its largest shareholder post-IPO, with a 27.1% stake cut diluted from 40.2%, while Pfizer Ventures’ share was cut from 10.4% to 7%.
The company’s other notable investors are Soleus Capital (5.6% post-IPO), HBM Healthcare Investments (5.4%) and Baker Bros, Farallon Capital Management and Cormorant Asset Management (4.7% each).
Joint book-running managers JP Morgan, Jefferies and Credit Suisse have the 30-day option to buy almost 1.58 million additional shares, which would increase the size of the offering to more than $217m.
