Indiana biotech startup MBX Biosciences filed for an initial public offering on Friday night.
It became the third clinical-stage drug developer to do so in the span of two days, marking a mini-revival at the tail end of a stagnant summer for Nasdaq listings. Backed by Frazier Life Sciences, OrbiMed and others, it is developing peptide therapies for endocrine and metabolic disorders.
Industry eyes will turn to the initial listings of MBX, oncology startup Bicara Therapeutics and autoimmune-focused Zenas BioPharma to see whether they can drum up excitement for a fall window after the Labor Day holiday. They could get a boost from federal interest rate cuts, which now appear to be on the near-term horizon following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments on Friday.
MBX plans to list under an eponymous ticker. Its S-1 filing didn’t reveal how much it seeks to raise, though the startup penciled in the standard $100 million maximum offering, a number that usually fluctuates during the roadshow. Bicara put $200 million as a placeholder on Thursday, hours after Zenas filled in $100 million.
The proposed move onto the Nasdaq comes just a few weeks after MBX unveiled a $63.5 million Series C. The company had about $55 million in cash, equivalents and marketable securities as of June 30, but that figure rises to about $118 million when including the Series C and other pro forma factors.
MBX spent about $25.5 million on research and development in the first six months of 2024, according to its IPO paperwork. That’s almost equivalent to the $28.5 million it spent all of last year on R&D, a reflection of ramping up clinical studies. Trial investigators dosed the first patient in a Phase 2 study this month, testing whether MBX’s parathyroid hormone peptide prodrug, dubbed MBX 2109, can be a long-acting treatment for chronic hypoparathyroidism. MBX is also in Phase 1 with MBX 1416, an experimental treatment for post-bariatric hypoglycemia.
Behind them, the company has a long-acting GLP-1/GIP receptor co-agonist prodrug in preclinical testing. Known as MBX 4291, the candidate will be explored for obesity, the most sought-after area of drug development right now as drugs for weight loss and comorbidities could become the largest pharmaceutical class in history.
Kent HawrylukMBX’s CEO has a history of dealmaking in the obesity field. Prior to co-founding MBX and Avidity Biosciences, Kent Hawryluk was co-founder and CEO of MB2, an obesity and diabetes biotech that Novo Nordisk bought for undisclosed terms in 2015.
Frazier Life Sciences is MBX’s biggest stockholder, owning nearly 22% of the drug developer. New Enterprise Associates and OrbiMed each own about 14%, Deep Track Biotechnology holds about 9% and Wellington Biomedical Innovation has approximately 8%. Norwest Venture Partners and RA Capital each own about 6%.
Carmel, IN-based MBX employed 36 people as of Aug. 15.