US-based haematologic disease and cancer drug developer Forma Therapeutics priced a $278m initial public offering yesterday that will provide exits for pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly and Novartis.
The offering comprises nearly 13.9 million shares priced at $20 each, above the IPO’s $16 to $18 range and increased from about 11.8 million shares. It will float on the Nasdaq Global Market later today and the IPO price values it at approximately $778m.
Forma is developing therapies to treat cancer and rare haematologic diseases, which relate to a patient’s blood. It intends to pump at least $115m of the proceeds from the IPO into an ongoing phase 1 clinical trial for its lead candidate, FT-4202, in sickle cell disease.
Another $15m will go to a second candidate, FT-7051, which will be advanced from the dose escalation to the dose expansion phase of a phase 1 trial for prostate cancer. Forma had raised at least $144m in funding according to the IPO filing.
Novartis led Forma’s $5.5m series A round in 2008, investing alongside Bio One Capital, the Singapore state-owned private equity fund now known as Biomedical Sciences Investment Fund.
The company secured $28.5m in a series B round led by Eli Lilly subsidiary Lilly Ventures that closed in 2010 and which included Novartis’s Option Fund, biopharmaceutical company Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Bio One.
Novartis Venture Fund and Lilly Ventures added $10m two years later, before RA Capital Management led a $100m series D round in December 2019 featuring Cormorant Asset Management, Wellington Management, Samsara BioCapital, an undisclosed healthcare investment fund and funds managed by Janus Henderson Investors.
RA Capital remains Forma’s largest investor, with a 12.9% stake post-offering. Other notable backers include Novartis Bioventures (7.7%), Baker Brothers Advisors (6.4%), Lilly Ventures (6.2%), Cormorant (4.8%) and Biomedical Sciences Investment Fund (4%).
Jefferies, SVB Leerink and Credit Suisse are joint book-running managers for the IPO and have 30 days to purchase approximately 2.08 million more shares, to potentially close it at about $319m.
