Homology Medicines, a US-based rare disease treatment developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Novartis, has raised $165.6m in its initial public offering and listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
The company, which had originally targeted $100m in proceeds, priced its shares at $16 each, offering a total of nine million shares to investors. The shares were trading at $16.49 at close yesterday, giving Homology a market cap of approximately $627.9m.
Founded in 2015, Homology Medicines is working on gene therapies that target the underlying causes of rare diseases. The company will use $18m to $20m of the proceeds to advance its lead candidate, HMI-102, through preclinical studies and a phase 1/2 trial.
Another $15m to $20m will go towards building out the company’s manufacturing capabilities, with another $8m to $10m allocated to nominating a lead gene editing candidate and advancing it through preclinical trials.
Finally, Homology will use $2m to $3m to bolster its intellectual property and further protect its assets. The remainder will be used for working capital.
Homology had secured approximately $130m in equity and debt financing, including $43.5m in a series A round co-led by 5AM Ventures and Arch Venture Partners, with participation from Temasek, the Singaporean state-owned investment firm, Deerfield Management and Arch Venture Partners’ Arch Overage Fund.
Deerfield then returned to lead an $83.5m series B round in August 2017, which featured Novartis, financial services group Fidelity Management and Research and Alexandria Venture Investments, the VC unit of real estate investment group Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
The series B round also included Temasek, Arch, 5AM, HBM Healthcare Investments, Maverick Ventures, Rock Springs Capital, Vida Ventures and Vivo Capital.
Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research held a 7.3% stake in Homology ahead of the IPO, diluted to 5.5% following the flotation.
5AM Ventures’ shareholding dropped from 24.8% to 18.6%, while Arch Venture Partners now owns 16.8%, down from 22.4%, and Deerfield holds 11%, down from 14.7%. Temasek Life Sciences has seen its stake reduced from 9.6% to 7.2%.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Cowen and Company, Evercore Group and BTIG acted as underwriters for the offering. They have been granted a 30-day option to purchase an additional 1.35 million shares.