After a sleepy few months, the biotech IPO market is waking up thanks to back-to-back-to-back listings.
Oncology-focused Bicara Therapeutics, autoimmune startup Zenas BioPharma and metabolic drug developer MBX Biosciences will go public in a rare tripleheader on Friday.
The biotech startups priced their initial public offerings on Thursday night, two months after cell therapy maker Artiva Biotherapeutics notched the last major biotech IPO. It’s also the first multi-listing day since the doubleheader of Fractyl Health and Alto Neuroscience on Feb. 1.
Close behind in the IPO queue is anti-aging and obesity drugmaker BioAge.
The Boston-area companies Bicara and Zenas priced $315 million and $225 million offerings, respectively.
Bicara’s twice-upsized IPO came in at 17.5 million shares $BCAX at $18 apiece, the high end of the range it set late last week. It had originally planned to sell 11.76 million shares, then upsized to 14.75 million earlier this week.
Zenas’ raise came in at more shares than initially planned — 13.23 million versus 11.76 million — but at $17 apiece $ZBIO, the midpoint of the range it marketed to investors in recent days.
Meanwhile, Carmel, IN-based MBX raised $163.2 million in its upsized offering by selling 10.2 million shares $MBX at $16 apiece, the high end of the range it proposed earlier this week.
In the clinic
Bicara, Zenas and MBX have ongoing trials, a milestone that nearly all investors expect a biotech to achieve before they can land an IPO in this environment.
And all three are going public within 12 months of announcing their Series C financings. MBX was the most recent to do so, landing a $63.5 million round just last month. Zenas disclosed its $200 million Series C in May, and Bicara unveiled its $165 million raise last December.
Bicara, a spinout from Indian biopharma giant Biocon, is in Phase 1/1b with a bifunctional EGFR/TGF-β antibody known as BCA101. It’s being tested alone and in combination with Merck’s Keytruda.
Zenas is in Phase 3 and multiple mid-stage trials with a bifunctional monoclonal antibody known as obexelimab, an asset that it salvaged from Xencor. It also has greater China rights to Viridian’s thyroid eye disease drug VRDN-001 and Dianthus’ DNTH103. Viridan’s drug, also known as veligrotug, passed a Phase 3 earlier this week.
MBX, meanwhile, is in Phase 2 with MBX 2109 for chronic hypoparathyroidism in a potential bid to compete with Ascendis Pharma and AstraZeneca. The startup’s parathyroid hormone peptide prodrug is being tested as a long-acting treatment.
This summer, the FDA greenlit Ascendis Pharma’s hypoparathyroidism drug Yorvipath, which was initially rejected by the US regulator in 2023. AstraZeneca also dished out $1.05 billion earlier this year for Amolyt Pharma and its late-stage candidate in the space. Takeda’s drug for the condition, Natpara, is exiting the market after running into manufacturing hurdles.
MBX also has a Phase 1 post-bariatric hypoglycemia drug and a preclinical-stage long-acting GLP-1/GIP receptor co-agonist prodrug.
New Enterprise Associates and Norwest Venture Partners each own at least 5% of both Zenas and MBX. RA Capital owns more than 5% of both Bicara and MBX.
Biocon is Bicara’s largest share owner at about 16%, Xencor is Zenas’ top stockholder at close to 12% and Frazier Life Sciences is MBX’s biggest shareholder at nearly 22%, according to S-1 filings.