Rezera—the new name for NodThera—is aiming for a $181 million IPO to take its NLRP3 inhibitor into phase 3 trials for a cardiovascular disease.
The Boston-based biotech announced its ambition last month to go public, but has now given a sense of the numbers involved. The plan is to offer 16.7 million shares priced between $11 and $13 apiece, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.
Assuming the final amount falls in the middle of this range, Rezera is banking on the IPO bringing in net proceeds of $181 million—rising to $208.9 million if underwriters buy up an additional 2.5 million shares at the same price.
Top of the list of spending proceeds is taking ruvonoflast, a brain-penetrant inhibitor of NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), through a planned phase 3 study next year in peripheral artery disease (PAD) and on to a 2028 readout.
PAD is a form of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease marked by narrowed or blocked small arteries that reduce blood flow to the limbs, usually the legs.
Rezera—which rebranded from NodThera in September—has been touting ruvonoflast as a potential anti-inflammatory drug for patients with obesity. Last month, the biotech unveiled phase 2 results evaluating the drug in combination with Novo’s Wegovy ingredient semaglutide.
That study showed that the ruvonoflast-semaglutide combo saw a statistically significant reduction in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP)—a marker of inflammation—compared with semaglutide alone. But by the time of the readout, the company had already decided that PAD was the way to go.
With around 20 million adults in the U.S. affected by the disease, Rezera is hoping it can tap into an estimated $5 billion market opportunity.
“We selected PAD because it represents a significant unmet medical need in a large patient population and is associated with a high inflammatory burden and substantial disease morbidity despite broad use of lipid-lowering, antihypertensive and diabetes therapies,” Rezera explained in the filing.
Rezera also has another NLRP3 inhibitor in the works, called trabzanoflast, which has been optimized specifically to enter the central nervous system.
Trabzanoflast has already completed a phase 1 study and the company is keen to launch a phase 2 study in neuroinflammatory conditions. But, with only $3.9 million in the bank to add to the IPO proceeds, the biotech isn’t assuming it will have the cash to see that trial through just yet.
“If our net proceeds exceed our current estimate, including as a result of an increase in the offering size or exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, or both, we expect to apply a portion of the additional proceeds to fund the trabzanoflast trial,” the company explained in the filing.
On the same note, wording about using some of the IPO proceeds to fund the commercial launch of ruvonoflast has also been toned down in the latest filing.
Rezera has 21 full-time employees split between its headquarters in Boston and an office in Cambridge, U.K.
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