MapLight Therapeutics (MPLT) priced its IPO at $17.00 and sold 14.75 million shares – as expected – to raise $250.75 million on Sunday night, Oct. 26, 2025. The Redwood City, California-based biotech sold another 476,707 shares in a concurrent private placement – at the $17.00 IPO price – to Goldman Sachs affiliates – to bring in another $8.1 million in proceeds. All told, MapLight Therapeutics raised about $258.85 million. At pricing, MapLight Therapeutics had a market cap of about $704.3 million. (Editor’s Note: This column, published Sunday night, Oct. 26, was updated at midday Monday with news on MapLight Therapeutics’ debut on NASDAQ.)
MapLight Therapeutics is developing a new drug candidate to treat schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease psychosis.
Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Leerink and Stifel were the joint book-runners of the IPO.
Shares of MapLight Therapeutics shot up $2.00 to open at $19.00 – at 11:44 a.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 – in their NASDAQ debut on volume of 515,330. MapLight’s stock was last up at $18.65 at around 12:55 p.m. EDT – up $1.65 from its $17.00 IPO price.
Novo Holdings A/S is among the principal stockholders in MapLight Therapeutics, according to the prospectus.
Accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management had indicated an interest in buying up to $40 million in shares at the IPO price – amounting to about 16 percent of the deal.
MapLight Therapeutics is studying its lead product candidate, ML-007C-MA, an M1/M4 muscarinic agonist co-formulated with a peripherally acting anticholinergic, in a Phase 2 clinical trial to treat patients with schizophrenia. Results are expected in the second half of 2026.
MapLight Therapeutics is conducting another Phase 2 trial to evaluate ML-007C-MA, its lead drug candidate, in the treatment of patients with ADP (Alzheimer’s Disease psychosis). Those results are expected in the second half of 2027.
The financial statements in the prospectus showed that MapLight Therapeutics has a lot of red ink on its balance sheet, which is typical for a biotech going public. MapLight Therapeutics had a net loss of $92.5 million on no revenue for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2025, according to the prospectus.
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