US-based vaccine developer Moderna Therapeutics has filed to raise up to $500m in an initial public offering that would enable pharmaceutical firms Merck & Co, AstraZeneca and Alexion Pharmaceuticals to exit.
Founded in 2010, Moderna is working on vaccines and drugs based on messenger RNA and it has a pipeline of 21 product candidates with development partners, 10 of which have reached the clinical testing stage.
Proceeds from the IPO, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, will be used to support clinical development and drug discovery while strengthening its mRNA technology platform and manufacturing capabilities.
The offering will come in the wake of approximately $1.8bn in financing including $450m in a 2015 round that included Alexion, Viking Global Investors, Invus, RA Capital Management and Wellington Management at a $3bn valuation.
Moderna added $474m in a September 2016 round in which AstraZeneca invested $140m and Boston Biotech Ventures $87m.
The company subsequently closed a round in February this year identified by the IPO filing as being $560m in size, valuing it at $7.5bn, before Merck provided $125m of equity funding in May through a collaboration deal.
Alexandria Venture Investments, part of real estate trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, also backed the round, as did financial services provider Julius Baer, Fidelity Management & Research, BB Biotech, Sequoia Capital China, Pictet, Viking Global Investors, ArrowMark Partners, EDBI and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The IPO filing did not reveal the precise size of the stakes held by each of Moderna’s shareholders, but AstraZeneca, Boston Biotech and Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital firm that incubated the company, own stakes worth 5% or more.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Barclays Capital, Piper Jaffray, Bryan, Garnier &, Oddo BHF, Oppenheimer, Needham & Company and Chardan Capital Markets are the underwriters for the offering.
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