A vanilla ice cream cone or a hot fudge sundae with the works: Two biotech IPOs took different approaches to pricing their deals on Thursday night (Sept. 14, 2023). Neumora Therapeutics (NMRA) priced its IPO in sync with the terms in its prospectus – 14.7 million shares at $17.00, the mid-point of its $16.00-to-$18.00 price range, to raise $250.1 million. In contrast, RayzeBio (RYZB) upsized its IPO by 20 percent to 17.28 million shares and priced the IPO at $18.00, the top of its $16.00-to-$18.00 range.
RayzeBio’s stock started NASDAQ trading at $25.00 – up 39 percent from its $18.00 IPO. price – at 11:38 a.m. EDT today.
Neumora’s stock opened at $16.50 – down 50 cents from its $17.00 IPO price – at 12:29 p.m. EDT on NASDAQ.
J.P. Morgan led the joint book-runners’ team on both deals.
Neumora Therapeutics and RayzeBio are expected to start trading today (Friday, Sept. 15, 2023) on the NASDAQ.
Developing a New Drug for Depression
J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, Stifel, Guggenheim Securities, RBC Capital Markets and William Blair were the joint book-runners of Neumora Therapeutics’ IPO.
Neumora Therapeutics (NMRA), based in Watertown, Massachusetts, says its lead drug candidate, navacaprant (NMRA-140), is a once daily pill (a kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist) that is being developed to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). The company says that it is starting a Phase 3 clinical trial of navacaprant in patients with moderate to severe MDD. Neumora Therapeutics says it expects to release results in the second half of 2024.
Neumora Therapeutics has the backing of big pharma and biotech players. The biotech startup was created by Arch Venture Partners and AMGEN, according to a story published in October 2021 by Fierce Biotech:
“Arch Venture Partners has taken the lid off its big bet on neuroscience. Having quietly put the startup together over the past 18 months, Thursday Arch unveiled Neumora Therapeutics—a biotech that starts life with $500 million, a collaboration with Amgen and a pipeline of eight prospects.”
Neumora Therapeutics reported a net loss of $131.66 million on no revenue for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2023.
Developing a New Cancer Drug
RayzeBio, Inc. (RYZB), based in San Diego, is a radiopharmaceutical therapeutics company focused on developing cancer drugs. Its lead drug candidate, RYZ1010, is in a Phase 3 clinical trial to treat patients with GEP-NETs, which are gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The drug candidate, RYZ101, is designed to deliver a highly potent alpha particle radioisotope, Actinium 225 (Ac225), to tumors overexpressing SSTR2 (somatostatin receptor Type 2).
J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Evercore ISI and Truist Securities were the joint book-runners of RayzeBio’s IPO.
Viking Global, Venbio Partners, Versant Venture Capital, Venrock Healthcare Capital and PeptiDream are among RayzeBio’s principal stockholders, according to the prospectus.
RayzeBio has a partnership with Tokyo-based PeptiDream, as well as license and/or collaboration agreements with Ablaze Pharmaceuticals and Nimble Therapeutics, the prospectus says.
RayzeBio reported a net loss of $65.76 million on no revenue for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2023.
(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.)
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