US-based liver and gastrointestinal disease drug developer Metacrine filed for a $100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market on Monday that will give pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly the chance to exit.
The IPO proceeds will fund phase 2a clinical trials for the company’s two lead product candidates, MET409 and MET642, in a liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Metacrine also plans to channel the proceeds into a phase 2a trial for one of the candidates in a bowel condition known as ulcerative colitis, and for a phase 2b trial for one of them in NASH. The US Food & Drug Administration recently awarded Fast Track designation to MET409 in NASH.
The offering will follow $125m in funding for the company, including $22m in a 2017 series B round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and backed by Alexandria Venture Investments, part of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Arch Venture Partners, Polaris Partners and VenBio also took part in the series B round, and all the series B investors returned for a $65m series C featuring Eli Lilly unit Lilly Asia Ventures, Venrock Healthcare Partners, Franklin Templeton Investments, Deerfield Management, Arrowmark Partners, Invus and Vivo Capital in mid-2018.
The company’s largest shareholders are VenBio (14.6%), Arch Venture Partners (14%), Polaris Partners (13.7%), NEA (11.8%) and Alexandria Venture Investments (6.5%). Jefferies, Evercore Group, RBC Capital Markets and Canaccord Genuity are underwriters for the offering.
