After revealing plans to hit the U.S. public markets less than a month ago, Zenas Biopharma and Bicara Therapeutics have mapped out the details behind their planned initial public offerings.
The planned IPOs are strikingly similar, with each company aiming to raise around $180 million, or around $209 million if IPO underwriters take up options.
Zenas is planning to sell 11.7 million shares of its common stock priced between $16 and $18 apiece, according to a Sept. 6 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company proposes trading under the ticker “ZBIO.”
Assuming the final share price falls in the middle of this range, Zenas would reap $180.7 million in net proceeds, with the figure rising to $208.6 million if underwriters fully take up their option to buy a further 1.7 million shares at the same price.
Bicara, meanwhile, said it plans to sell 11.8 million shares priced between $16 and $18. This would allow the company to raise $182 million at the midpoint, or nearly $210 million if underwriters buy up a separate tranche of 1.76 million shares, according to the company’s Sept. 6 filing. Bicara has applied to trade under the ticker “BCAX.”
Zenas, after adding the IPO proceeds to its existing cash, expects to channel around $100 million toward a range of studies for its sole asset obexelimab. These include an ongoing phase 3 trial in the chronic fibro-inflammatory condition immunoglobulin G4-related disease, as well as phase 2 trials in multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and a phase 2/3 study in warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
Zenas plans to spend the remainder of the funds to prepare for a hoped-for commercial launch of obexelimab in the U.S. and Europe, as well as for “working capital and other general corporate purposes,” according to the filing.
Obexelimab targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, mimicking the natural antigen-antibody complex to inhibit a broad B-cell population. Because the bifunctional antibody is designed to block, rather than deplete or destroy, B-cell lineage, Zenas believes chronic dosing may achieve better outcomes, over longer courses of maintenance therapy, than existing drugs.
Zenas licensed obexelimab from Xencor after the drug failed a phase 2 trial in SLE. Zenas’ decision to launch its own mid-stage trial in this indication in the coming weeks is based on an intent-to-treat analysis and results in people with higher blood levels of the antibody and certain biomarkers.
Bristol Myers Squibb also has a stake in obexelimab’s success, having licensed the rights to the molecule in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia for $50 million up front a year ago.
Since then, Zenas, a biotech set up by Tesaro co-founder Lonnie Moulder, has brought in $200 million from a series C financing in May. At the time, Moulder told Fierce Biotech that the company’s decision to stay private was related to “a challenging situation in our sector for potential IPOs.”
As for Bicara, the lion’s share of that company’s proceeds will help advance the development of ficerafusp alfa in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), specifically funding a planned pivotal phase 2/3 trial in support of a planned biologics license application.
The drug, a bifunctional antibody that targets EGFR and TGF-β, is already being studied with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda as a first-line therapy in recurrent or metastatic HNSCC. Among a small group of 39 patients, more than half (54%) experienced an overall response. Bicara now aims to start a 750-patient pivotal trial around the end of the year, eying a readout on the endpoint of overall response rate in 2027.
Besides that study, some IPO funds will go toward studying the drug in “additional HNSCC patient populations” and other solid tumor populations, according to the biotech’s SEC filing.
Like Zenas, the company plans to reserve some money for “working capital and other general corporate purposes.”
Most recently on its fundraising journey, Bicara raised $165 million in a series C round toward the end of last year. The company is backed by global asset manager TPG and Indian drugmaker Biocon, among other investors.