Codiak Biosciences, a US-based exosome drug developer that counts life science real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities as an investor, refiled for an initial public offering on Wednesday.
The company had previously filed to raise up to $86.3m in an offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in April 2019 before withdrawing its application three months later. It has now set an initial target of $100m for an IPO on the same market.
Founded in 2015, Codiak is developing drugs to treat diseases with high unmet medical need that are based on engineered exosomes: vesicles that function as intercellular transfer mechanisms for biologically active macromolecules.
The IPO proceeds will support a phase 1/2 clinical trial for the company’s lead product candidate, exoSTING, in injectable solid tumours, as well as a phase 1 trial for a second candidate, exoIL-12, covering healthy volunteers and early-stage cutaneous T cell lymphoma sufferers.
Codiak also plans to put some of the proceeds into additional research and development activities as well as the strengthening of its engineering and manufacturing platform, engEx Platform.
The offering comes after approximately $168m in funding, the most recent of which was a $76.5m series C round in 2017 featuring Alexandria Real Estate Equities vehicle Alexandria Venture Investments and investment and financial services group Fidelity.
Qatar Investment Authority, Alaska Permanent Fund, Arch Venture Partners, Flagship Pioneering, Boxer Capital, Sirona Capital, EcoR1 Capital and Casdin Capital also took part in the 2017 round.
The company had secured $61m in a 2016 series B round that included Alexandria Venture Investments, Fidelity, Alaska Permanent Fund and existing backers Arch Venture Partners and Flagship Ventures.
Codiak’s largest shareholders are Arch Venture Partners (28.3%), Flagship Ventures (18.9%), Fidelity (14.1%), Codiak scientific founder Raghu Kalluri (8%) and cancer care provider MD Anderson Cancer Center (6.8%). Goldman Sachs, Evercore Group, William Blair and Wedbush Securities are underwriters for the offering.
