Artiva Biotherapeutics has upsized its IPO to $167 million as the allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapy prepares to list on the Nasdaq this morning.
Earlier this week, Artiva set out plans to sell 8.7 million shares priced between $14 and $16 apiece. Assuming the price ended up at $15, this would have brought the company net proceeds of $116 million—rising to $135 million if underwriters took up their 30-day option to buy an additional 1.3 million shares at the same price.
But in a post-market release yesterday, the biotech said that while it had knocked its share price down to $12, it has raised the number of shares on offer to 13.9 million. This would equate to gross proceeds of $167 million before discounts and expenses are deducted, the company said.
The number of shares available to underwriters has also been boosted to 2.08 million, although these will be sold at the new price of $12.
Artiva’s stock will start trading on the Nasdaq Global Market this morning under the symbol “ARTV.”
The highest spending priority for the IPO proceeds is the continuing clinical development of a non-genetically modified, cryopreserved NK cell therapy called AlloNK. The candidate is currently in a phase 1 lupus nephritis trial in combination with Roche’s Rituxan or Gazyva, and AlloNK also features in a separate basket study in multiple autoimmune indications.
A readout from at least one of these indications is expected in the first half of 2025. On top of that, there's an ongoing phase 1/2 trial of AlloNK for B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Artiva’s new shareholders will presumably be hoping the company can buck the trend this year for newly-listed biotechs to struggle to maintain their valuation. The most recent entry to the public markets was TYK2 inhibitor-focused Alumis, whose stock ended Thursday trading at $12.51—a 21% drop on its $16 debut on June 28.