US-based cancer therapy developer Nkarta Therapeutics, which counts pharmaceutical firms Amgen, Novo and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as investors, has set the terms for an initial public offering that will raise $160m at its upper end.
The company intends to issue 10 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Market priced between $14 and $16 each. Cowen and Company, Evercore Group, Stifel Nicolaus and Mizuho Securities USA are the underwriters for the offering.
Nkarta is working on therapies that will involve the engineering of natural killer (NK) cells that will destroy cancer cells. It will put $65m of the IPO proceeds into research and development, manufacturing and clinical activities.
A further $15m has been earmarked for advancing a drug candidate known as NKX101 for the treatment of haematological malignancies, and $10m will go to a second candidate, NKX019, for B-cell malignancies.
GSK’ corporate venturing unit, SR One, reportedly joined Novo subsidiary Novo Ventures and venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) to supply $15m in series A funding for the company when it launched in 2015.
Nkarta raised a further $12.8m in 2017 according to the IPO filing, $510,000 coming from GSK and $11.3m from a vehicle called Battersea Biotech that was dissolved later that year with its shares going to SR One, Novo and NEA.
VC firm Samsara BioCapital led the company’s $114m series B round in September 2019, investing with SR One, Amgen subsidiary Amgen Ventures, NEA, Deerfield Management, Life Science Partners, Logos Capital and RA Capital Management.
Novo, SR One and NEA each hold an 13.3% stake in Nkarta set to be cut to 8.3% in the offering. Its other notable investors are RA Capital, which will own 8.5% post-IPO, Samsara BioCapital (5.9%), Deerfield and Life Science Partners (5.3% each).
