US-based cardiovascular disease therapy developer Verve Therapeutics is going public today in a $267m initial public offering representing exits for internet and technology group Alphabet and pharmaceutical firm Novo.
The offering consists of just over 14 million shares issued on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, increased from 11.8 million and priced at $19.00 each, above the $16 to $18 range set for the offering. The IPO price values the company at approximately $876m.
Verve is working on gene therapies to treat cardiovascular disease and will put $111m of the IPO proceeds into research and development for a drug candidate targeting the ANGPTL3 gene, including the launch of phase 1 clinical trials.
Another $84m will go to work on a candidate called VERVE-101 which is intended to turn off the PCSK9 gene in the liver, while $65m will be allocated to more generalised research and development.
The company launched in mid-2019 with a $58.5m series A round led by Alphabet unit GV that included investment and financial services group Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital subsidiary, Biomatics Capital, Arch Venture Partners and, according to the IPO filing, Beam Therapeutics, a biotech company that licensed one of its drugs to Verve.
GV then invested $30m to lead a $63m series A2 round for Verve in June 2020 that also featured Beam Therapeutics, F-Prime Capital, Arch Venture Partners, Biomatics, Casdin Capital and Wellington Management.
Wellington Management and Casdin Capital co-led Verve’s $94m series B round in January this year, investing with Novo, GV, Redmile Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Cormorant Asset Management, Rock Springs Capital, Logos Capital, Surveyor Capital, RA Capital Management, Biomatics and an undisclosed healthcare fund.
The company’s largest shareholder, GV, is the owner of a 23.4% stake diluted from 34.6%. Biomatics has a 5.6% stake post-IPO, Arch Venture Partners and Wellington Management 5.4% each and Casdin Capital 4.2%.
Joint book-running managers JP Morgan, Jefferies, Guggenheim Securities and William Blair have up to 30 days to acquire up to 2.1 million more shares in the offering, which could potentially rise to nearly $307m in size.
