Intellia Therapeutics, a US-based genomic drug developer backed by pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Novartis, set the range for its initial public offering between $16 and $18 per share on Wednesday.
The company is set to issue five million shares on Nasdaq, which would generate proceeds of $80m to $90m depending on the final share price.
Underwriters Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Jefferies, Leerink Partners and Wedbush Securities have a 30-day option to buy an additional 750,000 shares, which would increase the proceeds to between $92m and $103.5m.
Intellia is developing therapeutics based on Crispr/Cas9 gene editing technology, and plans to use $25m of the IPO proceeds to advance its drug candidates to the point where it can file an Investigational New Drug application.
A further $15m will go to advancing additional candidates, while $10m will support further development of Intellia’s delivery technologies and gene editing platform.
Cellular engineering company Caribou Biosciences, a co-founder of Intellia with venture capital firm Atlas Venture in 2014, is its largest shareholder, owning a 21.5% stake that will be diluted to 16.3% in the offering.
Novartis holds a 20.3% share of the company through its Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research subsidiary. It plans to buy $5m of shares through a private placement and will likely retain a 16.3% stake.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which agreed earlier this month to invest $75m in Intellia, will invest $50m through a private placement and is expected to come out with an 8.6% stake in the company.
Other notable shareholders include Atlas Venture (a 12.9% stake post-IPO), OrbiMed Advisors (7%) and Fidelity Management and Research (5.4%).
Intellia has raised $85m in equity funding, initially securing $15m from Novartis, Atlas and Caribou in late 2014, before adding $70m in series B capital from backers including Novartis, OrbiMed, Atlas Venture, Fidelity, Janus Capital Management, Foresite Capital, Sectoral Asset Management and EcoR1 Capital in September 2015.