Ventyx Biosciences is headed from California to Wall Street with plans for a customary $100 million IPO just six months after consolidating two biotechs under its roof.
Most biotechs running toward the Nasdaq these days are all too nascent, but Ventyx has some clinical history in the books. That includes an S1P1R modulator that showed early validation in tamping down inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease.
The shot at an IPO comes just nine days after Ventyx poached former Viela Bio Chief Medical Officer Jörn Drappa, M.D., Ph.D., who helped lead his former company to a $3 billion exit to Horizon Therapeutics earlier this year.
Ventyx's plans include starting a midstage study and two phase 1 trials before the end of this year, beginning at least two phase 2 trials in the second half of 2022 and entering the clinic on another asset before 2023.
The S1P1R modulator is an oral treatment being developed for ulcerative colitis. The company picked up a new executive chair earlier this month with experience bringing an S1P1R modulator to market: Sheila Gujrathi, M.D., who led development of Receptos' Zeposia for multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis.
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Other programs include a TYK2 inhibitor being investigated for treating psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and Crohn’s disease. Ventyx also has an NLRP3 inhibitor for systemic inflammatory diseases, including cardiovascular, hepatic, renal and rheumatologic conditions.
These treatments will go against other investigational drugs including Idorsia's cenerimod, Johnson & Johnson's ponesimod and Bristol Myers Squibb's deucravacitinib.
Beyond those three assets, Ventyx has another preclinical NLRP3 inhibitor it thinks can work in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.
New Science Ventures is the largest shareholder in Ventyx at 42.46%, followed by venBio at 11.89% and Third Point Ventures at 8.51%. The company's CEO and founder, Raju Mohan, Ph.D., owns nearly 5% of the company.
Ventyx was founded in November 2018. The newest iteration of the company is the result of acquiring other biotechs affiliated with Mohan: Oppilan Pharma and Zomagen Biosciences, which were bought for $14.1 million and $7.8 million, respectively, in February 2021. The transaction details were disclosed in the IPO prospectus Wednesday.