UPDATED: Bay Area biotech KaloBios reveals IPO ambitions

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals wants to go public. The South San Francisco developer of monoclonal antibody drugs has announced plans for an initial public offering. It's setting out to complete an IPO at a time when biotechs struggle to seal the deals without reducing their asking prices for shares.

KaloBios had burned through $78 million as of June 30, and the company has no products on the market, according to the regulatory filing. The company's first product, KB001-A, is slated to enter Phase II clinical trials in 2013. That means the company will likely be several years away from generating product sales revenue from its current lineup of drug candidates. Meantime, the filing comes as fellow West Coast biotech Regulus Therapeutics siginicantly cuts the price of its proposed IPO.

French drug giant Sanofi ($SNY) is partnered with KaloBios (a 2009 Fierce 15 company) on the KB001-A program, the developer says. The regulatory filing lists MPM, Sofinnova Ventures of Menlo Park, CA, and Alloy Ventures as its top three shareholders, respectively. 

The South San Francisco-based startup's regulatory document with the SEC says the IPO could total up to $60 million, and the company seeks listing on the Nasdaq under the symbol "KBIO." The proposed maiden public offering comes a month after the company announced a debt financing with MidCap Financial to bring in up to $15 million to aid in funding for the company's development-stage programs, led by KB003 for severe asthma and KB001-A for combating chronic infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.

- here's the regulatory filing
- read the release

Special Report: KaloBios - 2009 Fierce 15

Clarification: KB001-A is characterized as KaloBios' "first" program in its IPO filing, but we are told that it is not the "most advanced," as we initially interpreted "first" to mean in this report. Its "second" drug, KB003, is actually its most advanced in development, having hit Phase II in September.