Theseus Pharmaceuticals, a US-based targeted oncology drug developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Ariad Pharmaceuticals, has raised $160m in its initial public offering.
The offering involved the sale of approximately 10 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $16 apiece, at the top of the IPO’s $14 to $16 range. The share price valued it at $600m.
Theseus is developing therapies targeting a range of cancers through tyrosine kinase inhibitors that also allow for the prediction of future mutations and treat drug resistance variants, including specialised treatments for gastrointestinal stromal tumours and non-small cell lung cancer.
Foresite Capital led a $100m series B round for Theseus in April 2021 that included Orbimed, Boxer Capital, Adage Capital Management, Farallon Capital Management, Nextech Ventures, Longitude Capital, Omega Funds, Rock Springs Capital, Pontifax Venture Capital and T Rowe Price.
The company had received $20m in a 2018 series A round led by Orbimed in which Ariad secured shares through a licensing agreement for its intellectual property.
Orbimed has a 58.9% stake in the company that was diluted to 43.2% in the offering. Foresite Capital’s 11.1% stake was cut to 8.1% and Ariad’s 5.9% share to 4.3%.
Jefferies, SVB Leerink and Cantor are joint bookrunning managers on the offering while Wedbush PacGrow is lead manager. They have up to 30 days to acquire up to 1.5 million more shares, potentially lifting it to just over $184m in size.
