US-based biotechnology company Cidara Therapeutics, which has developed therapies to treat fungal infections and is backed by therapeutics developer Seachaid Pharmaceuticals, filed for a $69m initial public offering on Friday.
Founded in 2012, Cidara specialises in anti-infective drugs for diseases that remain largely unaddressed by the pharmaceutical industry, based on its immunotherapy platform, Cloudbreak.
Cloudbreak enables researchers to create anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral treatments that make a patient’s own immune cells attack and destroy pathogens at the origin of an infectious disease. The initial pipeline is built around anti-fungal therapies.
Cidara raised $42m in series B funding from unnamed new and existing investors in February 2015, and filed confidentially for an IPO the same month. It also received $32m in a 2013 series A round featuring Frazier Healthcare, 5AM Ventures, Aisling Capital, InterWest Partners and unnamed institutional investors.
Seachaid currently holds a 7.7% share of Cidara, while other notable stockholders include 5AM (22.1%), Frazier Healthcare (12.7%), Fidelity Investments (14.2%) and InterWest (12.7%).
The company will use approximately $25m of the proceeds to fund clinical development of its two lead anti-fungal drug candidates, CD101 IV and CD101, through completion of Phase 2 clinical trials, and to initiate a Phase 3 clinical trial for CD101.
Preclinical development, investigational new drug applications and early clinical trials of several current Cloudbreak produced drug candidates will be funded with $15m, while $10m will be used for research and discovery of other drug candidates for infectious diseases.
Jefferies and Leerink Partners are acting as joint bookrunners for the offering, while Wedbush Securities, Needham & Company and BTIG are serving as underwriters.