Israel-based cellular medicine developer Gamida Cell has filed to raise up to $69m in an initial public offering in the US that will allow pharmaceutical firm Novartis to exit.
Gamida is working on cell therapies based on its cell expansion technology, which is intended to go past the current limitations of cellular medicine, such as the availability of donor cells, in order to treat cancer and rare, serious haematologic diseases.
The proceeds from the offering will go to completing a phase 3 clinical trial for Gamida’s lead product candidate, NiCord, a blood cell therapy being developed as a universal curative stem cell graft for leukemia patients requiring a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, and to accelerate work on a manufacturing facility in Israel.
The company raised $16m from undisclosed investors in a 2006 series D round and a further $10m in a 2012 round featuring diversified holding company Elbit Imaging and pharmaceutical firms Teva and Amgen.
Clal Biotechnology Industries (CBI), a subsidiary of investment holding company Clal Industries, also took part in the 2012 round along with venture capital fund Israel Healthcare Ventures and investment firms Denali Ventures and Auriga Ventures.
Novartis invested $35m in Gamida in 2014 in return for a 15% stake, and provided $8m of a $40m round in June 2017 that was led by investment firm Shavit Capital and backed by CBI, Israel Healthcare Ventures, VMS Investment Group and Israel Biotech Fund.
Novartis is Gamida’s largest shareholder, with a 21.6% stake, followed by CBI (18.6%), an Elbit vehicle dubbed Elbit Cord Blood Limited Partnership (17.9%), Shavit Capital (12.9%), Israel Healthcare Ventures (11.3%) and VMX vehicle Smartmix (10.9%).
BMO Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets have been appointed joint book-running managers for the IPO, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Market. Needham & Company and Oppenheimer are co-managers.
