Actuate unveils modest $50M IPO plans to fund further cancer drug trials

Actuate unveils modest $50M IPO plans to fund further cancer drug trials

Actuate Therapeutics has set out plans for a modest $52 million IPO as the biotech seeks to fund a pair of trials for its glycogen synthase kinase‐3 beta (GSK-3β) drug.

The Texas- and Ireland-based biotech first announced in late May its intention to go public, but confirmed its estimates of the finances involved in a July 16 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company is planning to offer 5.5 million shares of common stock priced somewhere between $8 and $10 apiece.

Assuming that the final price falls in the middle of this range, Actuate is looking at net proceeds of $45.1 million—or $52 million if underwriters fully exercise their 30-day option to buy an additional 833,333 shares at the same price.

The predicted proceeds place Actuate at the lower end of 2024’s intermittent trickle of biotech IPOs, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Boundless Bio’s $88.4 million offering in March and preclinical gene editing company Metagenomi’s $93.7 million in February. CG Oncology continues to hold the top position with its $380 million offering that kicked off the year.

Actuate’s drug elraglusib is in a phase 2 trial for pancreatic cancer, one of the toughest targets in oncology, and proceeds from the IPO will allow the company to complete this midstage trial as well as a phase 1 dose-escalation trial in pediatric refractory cancer.

The biotech also hopes to use some of the IPO funds to initiate a phase 2 portion of that study assessing elraglusib in refractory Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer that can affect children and younger adults.

Elraglusib is designed to bind to GSK-3β, disrupting cancer pathways associated with the invasion of tumor cells and resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and radiation. Preclinical tests suggested the intravenous small molecule could have an impact on diseases like urothelial cancer and renal cell carcinoma, leading Actuate to take the candidate into human studies in 2018.

The phase 2 pancreatic cancer study has already seen some success, demonstrating a 57% disease control rate and 39% objective response rate when given in combination with the chemotherapy Gemzar.

Actuate will be heading to the public markets alongside allogeneic natural killer cell therapy Artiva Biotherapeutics, which revealed on Monday that it’s hoping to rake in up to $135 million from a planned IPO.

Most biotechs that have gone public this year have struggled to maintain their share price. The most recent entry was TYK2 inhibitor-focused Alumis, whose stock ended Tuesday trading at $11.09—a 30% drop on its $16 debut on June 28.

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