Lexington, MA's Concert Pharmaceuticals ($CNCE) picked up $84 million in an upsized IPO, taking advantage of a prolonged boom for biotechs to replenish its R&D fund.
Concert priced 6 million shares at $14, coming in at the low end of its range and boosting the size of its offering by 20%. The biotech plans to use the lion's share of its raise to fund the development of CTP-354, a novel treatment for spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury. Concert expects to kick off Phase II trials for the drug in the second half of this year, looking to follow up on some promise from a 71-patient Phase I study.
Rounding out Concert's pipeline is CTP-499, a Phase II treatment for Type 2 diabetic kidney disease, another drug for psychiatric disorders partnered with Avanir Pharmaceuticals ($AVNR), an inflammatory disease treatment developed alongside Celgene ($CELG) and a narcolepsy therapy licensed to Jazz Pharmaceuticals ($JAZZ). Key to each candidate is Concert's DCE Platform, through which the company adds deuterium to compounds in order to stabilize them and boost their efficacy.
Meanwhile, small medical device outfit Amedica priced a $20 million offering of its own Thursday, making for another banner week in life sciences IPOs. Flexion Therapeutics ($FLXN), Eagle Pharmaceuticals ($EGRX) and NephroGenex ($NRX) all made their Wall Street debuts in the past three days, bringing the week's total amount raised to about $220 million. That follows the $500 million a record 8 biotechs pulled in the week before, part of an early-year groundswell of IPO interest.
- read Concert's statement
- here's Amedica's note