Inhibrx, a US-based biologic drug developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and medical development services firm WuXi Biologics, floated yesterday in a $119m initial public offering
The offering consisted of 7 million shares, increased from 6 million, which were priced at $17.00 each, at the midpoint of the IPO’s $16 to $18 range. The company listed on the Nasdaq Global Market yesterday and its shares closed at $20.63, giving it a $757m market capitalisation.
Founded in 2010, Inhibrx is working on biologic therapeutics targeting cancer and orphan diseases. It intends to put $30m of the IPO proceeds into a phase 1 clinical trial for its lead drug candidate, INBRX-109, in two forms of cancer: chondrosarcoma and mesothelioma.
A further $45m will fund phase 1 trials for INBRX-101 in a rare inherited condition known as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, NBRX-106 in metastatic or locally advanced solid tumours and INBRX-105 in a bid to trigger an immune system response to tumours.
The company had raised a total of $135m in debt and equity financing as of May 2019 when it received $40m in convertible note financing from hedge fund Viking Global Investors, initially filing for the IPO the following month.
RA Capital Management invested $15m in Inhibrx in 2016 before Eli Lilly subsidiary Lilly Asia Ventures supplied a total of $20m for 11 of the company’s subsidiaries the following year, all of which were subsequently absorbed into Inhibrx in April 2018.
Lilly Asia Ventures provided another $11.4m in financing for the company in September 2018 while RA Capital invested $9.5m. Its shareholders also include life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities and ArrowMark Partners.
Lilly Asia Ventures’ stake was diluted from 9.8% to 6.7% in the offering. Viking Global Investors has a 10.6% share post-IPO while Inhibrx co-founder Quinn Deveraux owns 7.5% and affiliates of RA Capital 5.8%.
Jefferies, Evercore ISI and Credit Suisse are joint book-running managers for the IPO while LifeSci Capital is co-manager. They will be able to buy up to 1.05 million more shares over the next 30 days to possibly boost the size of the offering to more than $126m.
