US-based immunotherapy developer Hookipa Pharma has filed to raise up to $86.3m in an initial public offering that would enable pharmaceutical firms Gilead Sciences, Boehringer Ingelheim and Takeda to exit.
Hookipa is working on immunotherapies based on its arenavirus platform to treat cancer and infectious diseases by leveraging the body’s immune system.
The IPO proceeds will fund a phase 2 clinical trial for VaxWave, a drug Hookipa is developing to treat infectious diseases, in addition to advancing a prostate cancer candidate known as HB-301 and two HPV16 cancer candidates called HB-201 and HB-202 through phase 1 trials.
The company has raised approximately $134m in funding, including $27.5m in a 2013 series B round featuring corporate venturing units Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and Takeda Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, BioMedPartners and Forbion Capital Partners.
BIVF and Takeda Ventures were joined by Gilead for Hookipa’s $59.6m series C round in 2017, which was led by an unnamed investment fund and backed by Sofinnova, BioMedPartners, Forbion, HBM Partners, Hillhouse Capital and Sirona Capital.
Hookipa added $37.5m last month in a series D round led by Redmile Group and backed by Invus, Samsara BioCapital and a $2.1m investment by Takeda Ventures as well as Baker Brothers Life Sciences and unnamed existing investors.
BIVF owns an 8.6% stake in the company and Takeda Ventures 5.6%. Its other large shareholders are Baker Brothers (19.7%), Sofinnova (18.5%), Forbion (12.5%), HBM (5.4%) and Redmile (5.2%).
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, SVB Leerink, RBC Capital Markets and Kempen USA are the underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Market.
