Cyteir Therapeutics, a US-based oncology therapeutics developer backed by pharmaceutical firms Novo and Celgene, floated on Friday in a $133m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
The company priced 7.4 million shares at $18 each, at the upper end of the $16 to $18 range it had initially set. Its shares closed on $17.40 on its first day of trading, indicating a market capitalisation of approximately $600m.
Founded in 2012, Cyteir is developing small molecule therapies intended to leverage the body’s DNA damage response to treat cancer.
The company will use about $85m of the proceeds from the offering to speed up clinical development of its lead drug candidate, CYT-0851, which is aimed at treating patients with haematologic malignancies and solid tumours.
Cyteir has earmarked about $22m for a phase 1 clinical trial of CYT-1853, a similar drug candidate to CYT-0851 that has exhibited improved potency, and $31m for research and development.
RA Capital Management led an $80m series C round for the company in February 2021 featuring Novo, Janus Henderson Investors, Acuta Capital Partners, Ally Bridge Group, Avidity Partners, Ample Plus Fund, Venrock, Lightstone Ventures, Droia Ventures, CaaS Capital Management and Osage University Partners (OUP).
Novo had led Cyteir’s $75.2m series B round, which closed in late 2019 and which included Celgene, Droia Ventures, OUP, Lightstone Ventures and Venrock. It had already closed a $5.8m series A round in 2016 backed by Celgene and undisclosed individuals.
Novo continues to be Cyteir’s largest shareholder following the IPO, with a stake reduced from 16.9% to 13.2%. Its other notable shareholders include Venrock, which now owns a 9.5% stake, Droia Ventures (9.5%), OUP (7.2%), Lightstone Ventures (7.1%), RA Capital Management (5.8%) and Celgene (5.1%)
JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and BofA Securities are joint book-running managers for the offering while Wedbush PacGrow is co-manager. They have a 30-day option to purchase another 1.1 million additional shares, potentially increasing its size to approximately $153m.