Coherus BioSciences, a US-based developer of pharmaceutical biosimilars that is backed by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, raised $85m when it went public on Nasdaq on Thursday.
Coherus issued almost 6.3 million shares priced at $13.50. Joint book-running managers J.P. Morgan Securities and Credit Suisse Securities and lead manager Cowen and Company have a 30-day option to acquire another 944,000 shares, which would boost the size of the offering to almost $97.8m.
Founded in 2010, Coherus is developing biosimilar versions of existing drugs. It will invest $51m of the proceeds from the initial public offering to advance an anti-inflammatory, a chemotherapy aid and a psoriasis and arthritis treatment product candidate through clinical trials.
Eli Lilly, which led a $55m series C round for Coherus in May this year, remains the company’s largest investor, retaining an 8.98% stake through its Lilly Ventures corporate venturing subsidiary. Another pharmaceutical company, Daiichi Sankyo, holds 8.95%.
Other notable shareholders are clinical medical research company Medpace (7.8%), KKR (7.8%), Sofinnova Venture Partners (6.7%) and Venrock (6.2%). Coherus had raised about $220m in funding and licensing and milestone payments prior to the IPO.
The company’s shares opened on Thursday at $12.75 but rose to close on Friday at $15.10.