Market-ready biotechs eye $278M in another busy week for IPOs

The early-year deluge of biotech IPOs is showing no signs of letting up, as another 5 life sciences outfits have chosen this week to test out the market for their shares, looking to haul in as much as $278.2 million in total.

First up is NephroGenex ($NRX), which priced its shares at $12 on Tuesday to raise $37 million in its market debut. The company is developing pyridoxamine dihydrochloride as a treatment for diabetic nephropathy, a progressive kidney disease, and NephroGenex will put $30 million of its bounty to fund a Phase III trial for the drug.

Also on the docket is Concert Pharmaceuticals, which plans to raise up to $80 million when it hits the Nasdaq under "CNCE" this week. That money will fund Phase II trials for CTP-354, a treatment for spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, and late-stage studies of CTP-499, which treats diabetic kidney disease.

Meanwhile, Flexion Therapeutics seeks to raise as much as $70 million when it debuts as "FLXN," looking to advance the Phase III ready FX006 for osteoarthritis pain. Eagle Pharmaceuticals, which makes its money by reformulating existing drugs to boost efficacy, is planning to raise up to $52.8 million and trade under "EGRX," and medical device outfit Amedica is looking to pick up as much as $38.4 million and debut as "AMDA."

If all goes according to plan, the 5 biotechs will join last week's 8 successful market entrants and rack up a combined $780 million in just a fortnight.

However, despite some prolonged investor good faith, the long-term fates of 2014's biotech IPO success stories might not be so promising. As IPO research outfit Renaissance Capital points out, many recent entrants have seen their share values drop since hitting Wall Street, and many had to slash prices and amp up offerings just to make it there. Even early-year all-stars Dicerna Pharmaceuticals ($DRNA) and Ultragenyx ($RARE) have seen their shares fall sharply since respectively tripling and doubling on day one, according to Renaissance.

But that hasn't slowed the march to market for many in the industry. MediWound, Bio Blast, Galmed and Dipexium have all announced plans to go public over the last 7 days, looking to bring in a combined $191 million, and many more biotechs are said to be making the rounds with bankers in hopes of doing just the same.

- read NephroGenex's release