US-based integrin drug developer Morphic Holding, which counts pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Novo, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and ShangPharma as investors, closed its initial public offering at approximately $104m yesterday.
The company had floated on the Nasdaq Global Market in a $90m IPO last week, pricing 6 million shares at $15.00 each. The shares closed at $18.00 on their first day of trading and were $22.67 by the close of trading yesterday.
Joint bookrunning managers Jefferies, Cowen and Company, BMO Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities subsequently acquired a further 900,000 shares through the greenshoe option.
Also known as Morphic Therapeutic, Morphic is working on small molecule drugs that will fight disorders like cancer, fibrosis and autoimmune, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, by targeting protein receptors known as integrins.
The revised stakes mean GSK subsidiary SR One, Pfizer and Novo will come out with stakes in Morphic of 7.6%, 7.2% and 6.5% respectively. Its other notable investors are investment firms Omega Funds (9.3%) and Polaris Partners (7.2%), EcoR 1 Capital and Artal International (4.4% each).
Morphic had previously raised $135m in equity funding, $80m of which came in a September 2018 series B round co-led by Novo and Omega Funds that included SR One, Pfizer unit Pfizer Ventures, EcoR1, Artal, Polaris and AbbVie Ventures, which invests on behalf of drug producer AbbVie.
Chemical simulation software provider Schrödinger and ShangPharma Investment Group, a subsidiary of ShangPharma, are among the company’s earlier backers, in addition to Invus. Morphic co-founder Timothy Springer took part in every round and holds a 16.9% stake post-IPO.
