Three IPO hopefuls look to squeeze out $144M as biotech gets bearish

After a record-setting first quarter put billions in the pockets of drug developers, a second class of biotech upstarts is scrambling to cash out on Wall Street before an increasingly shaky market shuts the door on life sciences IPOs. Dance Biopharm and Minerva Neurosciences are swinging for a combined $144 million, hoping the industry's rough couple of weeks won't sully their planned debuts.

First up is Dance, a Brisbane, CA, outfit seeking up to $75 million to get its inhaled insulin to market. Like the headline-grabbing Afrezza from MannKind ($MNKD), Dance's product is a drug-device combo that promises to free diabetics from inconvenient injections, but, in contrast to the former's dry-powder formulation, Dance 501 uses vaporized insulin, which the company said could reduce respiratory side effects. The treatment has already made its way through mid-stage studies, and the biotech plans to spend most of its IPO haul to kick off a Phase III trial next year. If its public debut goes according to plan, Dance will to trade on the Nasdaq under "DNCE."

Cambridge, MA's Minerva is swinging for $69 million to advance its four in-development treatments for central nervous system diseases. Most advanced is MIN-101, a Phase II schizophrenia therapy, followed by the mid-stage major depressive disorder treatment MIN-117 and the Phase I drugs MIN-202 for insomnia and MIN-301 for Parkinson's disease. Minerva is the result of a 2013 merger between Cyrenaic Pharmaceuticals and Sonkei Pharmaceuticals, and the company's investors include the Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) Development Corporation. The biotech intends to trade under "NERV."

Dance Biopharm's lead product is a drug-device combo for Type 2 diabetes.--Courtesy of Dance Biopharm

Meanwhile, the halcyon days of the first quarter's boom are beginning to feel all the more distant. The industry's exchange-traded fund ($IBB) has taken a beating over the past few weeks, as tepid performances from large-cap outfits like Gilead Sciences ($GILD) and Amgen ($AMGN) have trickled down to smaller biotechs and dampened IPO optimism.

So far, Q2's drug developer debutantes haven't exactly been feted by investors. Last week, Corium ($CORI) priced below its expected range at $8, and, this week, Cerulean ($CERU) had to slash its asking price down to $7 a share to pull off a $60 million IPO while Adamas ($ADMS) came in at the low end of its projected range.

And things may only get tougher for the cadre of biotechs queued up behind them, which includes Lumena Pharmaceuticals, Alder Biopharmaceuticals and Syndax Pharmaceuticals.

- here's Dance's filing
- read Minerva's S-1

Special Report: Biotech's breathless quarter of IPOs brings in $2.1B for R&D