Vaccitech, a UK-based vaccine developer that counts corporates Tencent, Alphabet, and Gilead Sciences as investors, will raise about $110m when it begins trading on the Nasdaq Global Market today.
The company will issue 6.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), each representing one ordinary share. It priced them at $17.00 each, at the midpoint of the IPO’s $16 to $18 range.
Founded in 2016, Vaccitech initially aimed to develop a universal flu vaccine but the most fundamental impact its technology has had to date has probably been its role in the creation of the covid-19 vaccine now deployed by pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
The company’s pipeline includes therapeutics targeting chronic hepatitis B infection, persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
The IPO proceeds will support platform development and the clinical development of the aforementioned drug candidates as well as potential vaccines for shingles and Middle East respiratory syndrome (commonly referred to as Mers).
Vaccitech closed a $168m series B round last month that included internet group Tencent and biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences.
The round was led by M&G Investment Management, a division of impact investment manager M&G, and also featured Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), Future Planet Capital, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and unnamed new and existing backers.
The company had secured $33.9m in a 2018 series A round co-led by internet and technology group Alphabet’s GV subsidiary, OSI and Sequoia Capital China that was also backed by Neptune Ventures. The round was reported as $27.1m at the time but Vaccitech revealed the updated figure in its IPO filing.
OSI had already taken part in Vaccitech’s $14.5m seed round in 2016, with Invesco, Landsdowne and Woodford Investment Management also participating.
Vaccitech’s largest shareholder is OSI, with a 29.5% stake diluted to 23.9% in the offering. Its other notable investors are M&G’s Prudential Credit Opportunities vehicle (10.4% post-IPO), GV (5%), Tencent (4.2%) and Sequoia China (4.1%).
Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Barclays and William Blair are bookrunners for the offering while HC Wainwright is lead manager. The underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to 975,000 additional ADSs, which would boost the size of the IPO to $127m.
