City Therapeutics has gone public with an upsized $200 million IPO, on the same day that Frazier Life Sciences listed its second biotech-focused shell company.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based City offered 11.1 million shares—above the 9.7 million shares it had previously expected—priced in the middle of its anticipated range of $17 to $19, the company announced on Thursday evening.
This is due to bring in $200 million in gross proceeds—above the $158.3 million in net proceeds the biotech had previously suggested. This haul could rise by around a further $30 million if underwriters fully take up their option to buy an additional 1.7 million shares at the same price of $18.
City’s shares are due to start trading on the Nasdaq Friday morning under the ticker symbol “CTY.”
The company has already earmarked $30 million to fund the Factor XI-targeting RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic CITY-FXI through an ongoing phase 1 study and into a mid-stage trial for patients who have undergone knee surgery, a setting where thrombosis is common.
Another $20 million is due to be spent on a phase 1 study of a GalNAc-conjugated siRNA therapeutic called CITY-RBP4 and prepare to evaluate it for Stargardt disease and geographic atrophy.
Then there’s $40 million that the company hopes to spend on another GalNAc-conjugated asset dubbed CITY-TFR2, which is due to enter a trial in China later this year as a potential treatment for anemia. City has plans to expand into other chronic conditions where anemia is prevalent, like chronic kidney disease and inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease.
City broke ground in 2024 with the backing of RNAi pioneers from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, like John Maraganore, Ph.D., Mark Keating, M.D., and Tracy Zimmermann, Ph.D.
When the 81-strong company hooked a $99.5 million series B in June, City CEO Andy Orth told Fierce that RNAi drugs are primed to revolutionize medicine in the same way antibodies once did.
“The underlying belief set here is this is going to be a really meaningful class of medicines,” Orth told Fierce at the time. “Within that, just like within the antibodies, there's room for innovation.”
As well as the series B funds, City has also inked partnerships with the likes of Bausch + Lomb and Biogen.
City’s IPO comes weeks after fellow RNA-focused biotech ADARx Pharmaceuticals scored an impressive $446.3 million in its public listing. The company’s stock has retained its value since then, closing Thursday trading at $17.70 after launching at $17 on Sept. 25.
Frazier Life Sciences also hit the Nasdaq on Friday with its second biotech-focused special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The SPAC’s CEO is Albert Cha, M.D., Ph.D., who co-leads Frazier’s Life Sciences team, and the blank-check company has a mission to identify a promising biotech to take public via a reverse merger.
By offering 7.5 million shares at $10 a pop, the SPAC—called Frazier Life Sciences Acquisition Corp.—will have roughly $75 million to play with from the IPO.
The SPAC path to the public markets hit peak popularity among biotechs back in 2022, with interest in the model having since died down. However, there have been a few notable examples in recent years, including stem cell company PrimeGen, which launched onto the Nasdaq via a SPAC in February.
Frazier’s previous SPAC merged with NewAmsterdam Pharma back in 2022 to take the Dutch biotech public.