Google, Gates-backed Arsanis eyes $58M IPO

Arsanis is gunning for a $58 million IPO as it seeks a new cash load for its work on using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for infectious diseases.

This comes just five months after Arsanis raised a solid chunk of cash, $45.5 million, in its latest series D funding round, where it picked up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Alphabet's Google Ventures as backers.

While mAbs may be more well known to oncologists, research has opened new possibilities of expanding the use of mAbs to hit acute bacterial and viral infections, all without contributing to the growing issue of antibiotic resistance or damaging the patient’s microbiome.

The company has been working on a phase 2 study for its lead program, ASN100, for the prevention of Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia in high-risk, mechanically ventilated patients.

The company also has plans to advance its preclinical programs for multi-drug-resistant infections, as well as its respiratory syncytial virus program (RSV) that is also supported by the Gates Foundation, toward the clinic.

And it’s conducting research in neonatal Staphylococcus aureus sepsis—an infection that affects newborns in developing countries—with the potential for future funding to advance a neonatal sepsis candidate.

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The Gates Foundation, as part of its series D, could also further boost funding to Arsanis for up to two additional discovery programs.

Its joint leading shareholders are Polaris, SV Life Sciences and Orbimed, each holding just under an 18% stake, according to its SEC-1 filing.

The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company was founded in 2010 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ‘ASNS.'