Unity Biotechnology, the US-based aging disease drug developer backed by pharmaceutical companies WuXi PharmaTech and Mayo Clinic, has raised $85m in its initial public offering.
The IPO consisted of 5 million shares issued on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced at $17 each, at the midpoint of the $16 to $18 range the company set late last month.
Unity will use $10m to $20m of the proceeds to advance its lead product candidate, a musculoskeletal disease treatment called UBX0101, into a phase 1 clinical study in osteoarthritis expected to begin in the second half of this year.
Additional proceeds will support a phase 1 study and investigational new drug-enabling studies of another candidate, UBX1967, for opthalmologic diseases, while up to $35m will go to research and development of Unity’s pipeline. It expects the proceeds to fund operations until 2021.
The company has raised at least $212m in funding. WuXi PharmaTech, Mayo Clinic, Venrock, Arch Venture Partners and Unity president Nathaniel E. David supplied its additional funding in 2015 before returning for a $151m series B round that closed in June 2017.
Fidelity Management and Research (FMR), Baillie Gifford, Partner Fund Management (PFM), Bezos Expeditions, Vulcan Capital, Founders Fund, Pathfinder Investment Fund, Andalucia Ventures, Invus Opportunities, Three Lakes Partners, Cycad Group, Pivotal Alpha and Com Investments also backed the series B.
The WuXi PharmaTech-backed 6 Dimensions Capital then joined FMR, EcoR1 Capital Fund, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Baillie Gifford, PFM, Arch Venture Partners, Venrock, Founders Fund, Longevity Fund, Pivotal Alpha and Invus Opportunities for a $55m round in March this year.
WuXi PharmaTech Healthcare Fund owned a 8.7% stake in Unity that was diluted to 7.7% in the offering, while Mayo Clinic’s share was cut from 6.7% to 5.9%.
Arch Venture Partners, which originally launched Unity, remains its largest shareholder, with a 23.7% stake post-offering. Its other investors include Venrock (6.3%), Baillie Gifford (6%) and FMR (5.2%).
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are joint book-running managers for the offering while Mizuho Securities is a lead manager. They have the 30-day option to acquire another 750,000 shares, boosting its size to $97.8m.
Unity’s shares closed at $16.65 at the end of its first day of trading on Thursday, and at $16.34 yesterday.