The buzz around biotech IPOs is continuing through January, with clinical-stage metabolic company Aardvark Therapeutics revealing plans to go public while Hong Kong-listed Ascentage Pharma joins the Nasdaq with a $126.4 million offering.
Aardvark’s pipeline is headed up by ARD-101, a bitter taste receptor (TAS2R) pan-agonist designed to stimulate enteroendocrine cells of the digestive tract. The aim is to release gut-peptide hormones such as GLP-1—the function of which is a focus of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight loss drugs—and the satiety hormone cholecystokinin, thereby activating gut-brain neurologic signaling to reduce feelings of hunger.
ARD-101 has already shown an ability to suppress appetite when used alone or in combination with Novo and Lilly’s approved drugs, according to previous comments by Aardvark.
The biotech has evaluated ARD-101 in a trio of phase 2 studies, including a trial in 20 patients with general obesity that showed individuals who received ARD-101 experienced a 2.51-fold greater reduction in hunger rating compared to placebo. Meanwhile, a study in 12 patients with a rare genetic condition called Prader-Willi syndrome, which makes them feel constantly hungry, showed that 11 of these patients experienced a reduction in severe hunger in 28 days.
There are also plans to begin a phase 2 study in severe hunger and obesity linked to the treatment of a type of brain tumor called craniopharyngioma.
Aardvark has yet to set the value of its planned IPO but said in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing Jan. 23 that it expects to use the proceeds to “advance the clinical development of ARD-101” as well as continue work on another clinical-stage obesity asset called ARD-201, which is a fixed-dose combination of ARD-101 and a DPP-4 inhibitor.
The biotech has raised a total of $129.1 million since being launched in 2021, with the most recent funding infusion being a $85 million series C in May 2024 led by VC firm Decheng Capital.
Aardvark is only the latest biotech looking to squeeze through the slowly widening IPO window. This morning will also see Hong Kong-listed Ascentage try its luck on the Nasdaq via a $126.4 million offering. The Chinese company could bring in another $19 million should underwriters fully take up their 30-day offer to buy an additional 1.09 million American depositary shares at the same IPO price of $17.25 apiece.
Ascentage has already earmarked up to $60 million of the proceeds to pursue approval of the cancer drug lisaftoclax in China and up to $40 million to develop the kinase inhibitor olverembatinib in the U.S.