US-based biopharmaceutical company Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, backed by Fidelity, raised $100m in its flotation.
The company was listed on Nasdaq under the ticker Mack on March 28, selling 14.3 million shares at $7 per share.
The main institutional shareholders in Merrimack are financial services firm Fidelity Investments (which held 7.1% before the initial public offering, or IPO), the Credit Suisse-owned Next Fund (with 6.2%), investment management firm Fred Alger Management (5.6%) and hedge fund sponsor TPG-Axon Capital (5.4%).
Entities close to Fidelity had indicated an interest in purchasing up to $28.7m in shares in the IPO. Additional investors in Merrimack are real estate management firm Sorenson Group, private equity firm Wharton Partners, venture capital firm Crocker Ventures, investment management firm Jennison Associates, and the WT Investments Advisors Fund.
Founded in 1993 as Atlantic Biopharmaceuticals, Merrimack develops drug treatments and accompanying diagnostics with a particular focus on the treatment of cancer.
Merrimack’s most recent equity funding came care of a $77m series G round in April last year, just prior to it acquiring the rights to commercialise and develop a cancer drug known as MM-398 in Europe and Asia, from Taiwan-based pharmaceutical company PharmaEngine. Merrimack filed for an IPO two months after.
Much of the cash raised from the IPO has been earmarked for clinical trials for MM-398, with further funds expected to finance ongoing clinical trials for Merrimack’s other drug candidates. Merrimack was unavailable for comment at time of publication.
The underwriters for the offering are JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Cowen and Company, and Oppenheimer & Co.