LianBio, a US-headquartered diversified drug developer backed by pharmaceutical firms BridgeBio and Pfizer, filed an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market with a $100m placeholder target on Friday.
Founded in 2019, LianBio is developing nine drug candidates across five therapeutic areas including oncology and cardiorenal diseases, focusing on China and other Asian markets. It has partnerships in place with pharmaceutical groups including Bristol Myers Squibb, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals that also featured Pfizer.
LianBio had raised $310m in a series A round in October 2020 co-led by RA Capital, CMG-SDIC Capital and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners and backed by Pfizer.
Casdin Capital, Farallon, Logos Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Sphera Healthcare, Tybourne Capital Management, Vida Ventures, Viking Global Investors and Wellington Management also took part in the October round, as did funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price and those overseen by BlackRock.
Perceptive Advisors, the firm for which LianBio chairman Konstantin Poukalov is managing director, had provided $55m in seed funding for the company in October 2019, according to the IPO filing. BridgeBio was issued shares through a strategic partnership agreement.
Perceptive Advisors has a 62.4% share in LianBio while RA Capital holds a 7.2% stake and BridgeBio owns 5.8%. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and BofA Securities are joint book-running managers for the offering, and they are joined by lead manager Raymond James.
