Century Therapeutics, a US-based cancer immunotherapy developer backed by pharmaceutical and chemical group Bayer and optics and medical engineering group Fujifilm, has gone public in a $211m initial public offering.
The company issued 10.6 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $20 per share, which was the upper end of the offering’s $18 to $20 range. Its shares closed on $22.83 on the first day of trading on Friday, implying a market capitalisation of about $1.3bn.
Founded in 2018, Century is working on allogeneic cell therapies for the treatment of patients with haematological and solid tumour malignancies.
Century will use about $50m of the IPO proceeds to fund an investigational new drug (IND) application for its lead drug candidate, CNTY-101, as well as preclinical activities. It plans to deploy about $110m for IND applications and preclinical activities for three more candidates: CNTY-102, CNTY-103 and CNTY-104.
The company will also invest approximately $35m in developing its manufacturing capabilities and facilities and $40m in research and development.
Bayer’s corporate venturing arm, Leaps by Bayer, invested $25m in Century’s $160m series C round, in March 2021, which was led by Casdin Capital and also backed by financial services and investment group Fidelity and sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority.
Versant Ventures, Avidity Partners, Federated Hermes’ Kaufmann Funds, Logos Capital, Marshall Wace, Octagon Capital, OrbiMed and RA Capital Management filled out the list of series C participants.
The company emerged from stealth in July 2019 with $250m from a round led by Leaps by Bayer with a $215m commitment. It also featured Versant Ventures and Fujifilm’s biotechnology division, Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics.
Versant Ventures will remain Century’s largest shareholder, with a stake reduced from 30.6% to 24.7%. Bayer will now hold a 21.8% stake while its other significant investors include Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics (12.7% post-IPO) and Casdin Capital (4.4%).
JP Morgan, BofA Securities, SVB Leerink and Piper Sandler are joint book-running managers for the offering and have an option over 30 days to purchase just under 1.6 million additional shares, which would potentially expand the IPO to nearly $243m.