Translate Bio, a biopharmaceutical company backed by agribusiness Monsanto and pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co, Pfizer and Merck Group, will raise more than $121m when it floats later today.
The company increased the number of shares in the initial public offering from 7.7 million to 9.35 million, and priced them at $13.00 each, in the middle of the IPO’s $12 to $14 range. It will float on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Formerly known as RaNA Therapeutics, Translate is working on messenger RNA therapies to treat diseases associated with gene or protein dysfunction. Its core platform was initially developed at pharmaceutical firm Shire, which transferred it to Translate in late 2016.
The company will use $26m of the proceeds to fund clinical development of MRT500, a candidate to treat cystic fibrosis.
A further $12m will support clinical work on MRT5201, which is being developed to treat patients with a deficiency of ornithine transcarbamylase, which causes ammonia to build up to unhealthy levels in the blood. An additional $22m will go to preclinical research for other drugs.
Venture capital firm Atlas Venture seeded Translate with $2.7m in 2011, before co-leading the company’s $20.7m series A round with Monsanto and SR One, the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline.
MRL Ventures, a corporate VC vehicle for Merck & Co, co-led Translate’s $55m series B round in 2015 with hedge fund Baupost Group, investing alongside Monsanto, SR One, Pfizer unit Pfizer Venture Investments and Merck Group subsidiary MS Ventures.
Partners Innovation Fund, which invests on behalf of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, also took part, as did Atlas Venture, Fidelity Management and Research (FMR), Rock Springs Capital Management, Brookside Capital, Leerink Partners, Omega Funds and an undisclosed blue chip public investment fund.
Baupost subsequently led a $51m series C round in December 2016 that included SR One, MRL Ventures, Atlas Venture, FMR, Omega Fund Management and Ronald Renaud 2014 Irrevocable Family Trust.
Translate received another $42m in December 2017 from investors including FMR, Omega and Baupost, according to the IPO filing.
Shire is the company’s largest shareholder, with a 19.6% stake pre-offering. Notable investors include FMR (14.4%), Baupost (13%), Atlas Venture (11.1%), SR One (9.7%), Omega Fund Management (6.9%) and MRL Ventures (5.2%).
Citigroup, Leerink Partners and Evercore ISI are joint book-running managers for the offering. If they fully take up the option of buying more than 1.4 million extra shares the size of the offering will go up to approximately $140m.