Vaccitech, a UK-based cancer and infectious disease vaccine developer backed by corporate investors Alphabet, Tencent and Gilead Sciences, filed for an initial public offering in the US on Friday.
Financial terms have not yet been set and Vaccitech has used a placeholder $100m target in its draft prospectus. It is looking to list on the Nasdaq Global Market and is seeking a valuation of about $700m, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Founded in 2016, Vaccitech originally focused on a universal flu vaccine but came to prominence when its technology was used to develop AZD1222, the vaccine for covid-19 co-developed by University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
The company’s pipeline now also includes drug candidates targeting chronic hepatitis B infection, persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus infection and prostate cancer. It will use proceeds from its planned offering to advance all three of those assets.
The money will also allow Vaccitech to drive the development of a therapy for non-small-cell lung carcinoma, and preventative vaccines for shingles and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (commonly known as Mers), in addition to funding further platform development.
Vaccitech completed a $168m series B round last month led by M&G Investment Management, a division of impact investment manager M&G, and backed by internet company Tencent and biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences.
The round also attracted university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), Future Planet Capital, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and unnamed new and existing investors.
Vaccitech received $33.9m in a 2018 series A round co-led by internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet’s GV unit, OSI and Sequoia China that included Neptune Ventures. It was reported as being $27.1m in size at the time but Vaccitech revealed the updated figure in its draft prospectus.
OSI had already contributed to a $14.5m seed round for Vaccitech in 2016, when Invesco, Landsdowne and Woodford Investment Management also participated.
The company’s largest shareholder ahead of the offering is OSI, with a 29.5% stake. M&G holds 12.8% through Prudential Credit Opportunities, followed by GV (6.1%), Tencent (5.1%) and Sequoia Capital China (5.1%).
Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Barclays Capital, William Blair and HC Wainwright are underwriters for the offering.
The original version of this article apeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.