Clinical-stage biotech Kalohexis is preparing for a public listing to support its obesity and cancer cachexia treatments.
Though the company has not determined how many shares it plans to offer or the price, Kalohexis revealed in a June 7 release that it has confidentially submitted the relevant IPO documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kalohexis spun out of privately owned peptide therapeutic company Endevica Bio in March to focus on treatments by leveraging the body’s melanocortin system, which regulates metabolic homeostasis. Kalohexis has developed its own peptide candidates that target central melanocortin-3 and -4 receptors (MC3R/MC4R) to treat a range of metabolic disorders.
The biotech's lead assets are 710GO, an oral dual MC3R/MC4R agonist in phase 1 development for weight loss, and mifomelatide, a injectable dual MC3R/MC4R antagonist in phase 2 for the treatment of a wasting syndrome called cachexia in patients with advanced cancers. The company also has several preclinical discovery programs.
Back when the biotech spun out of Endevica, Kalohexis Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Daniel Marks, M.D., Ph.D., said the company's approach has shown advantages over GLP-1s in the obesity space.
“710GO has the potential to be a healthier, more durable obesity treatment than current standard of care because rather than just suppressing appetite, it changes the body's metabolic set-point,” Marks said at the time.
Marks also pointed to preclinical data that he claimed showed 710GO “did not cause the side effects common with GLP-1 receptor agonists, such as loss of lean body mass, gastrointestinal distress and rapid weight regain following treatment cessation.”
Kalohexis is led by Russell Potterfield, who has served as Endevica's CEO since 2020 after helping found the company in 2015.
Kalohexis' leadership will likely take heart from the renewed investor interest in biotech IPOs this year, which has included the $625 million offering by obesity-focused Kailera Therapeutics.