RNA biotech CAMP4 Therapeutics has marked out plans for a $67 million IPO, with inflammation-focused Upstream Bio pegging its own ambitions at $182 million.
While Upstream had already disclosed its intention to hitch itself to this fall’s lengthening biotech IPO wagon, CAMP4 only announced Monday morning that its goal is also to go public.
CAMP4’s tech, known as the RAP platform, is designed to quickly identify the active RNA regulatory elements that control gene expression with the mission of creating RNA-targeting therapies that restore healthy protein levels.
The company is hoping to sell 5 million shares priced between $14 and $16 apiece, according to an Oct. 7 Securities and Exchange Commission filing (PDF). Assuming the final price falls in the middle of this range, CAMP4 expects the offering to bring in around $66.7 million in net proceeds—rising to $77.1 million if underwriters take up the 30-day option to purchase an additional 750,000 shares at the same price.
Top of the list of spending priorities will be CMP-CPS-001, an antisense oligonucleotide that CAMP4 is touting as a potential first-in-class treatment for urea cycle disorders. The candidate is currently in a phase 1 trial for healthy volunteers, but CAMP4 plans to use the IPO proceeds to continue CMP-CPS-001’s clinical development.
Next in line is the preclinical CMP-SYNGAP program that is being targeted for the treatment of SYNGAP1-related disorders, while a portion of the proceeds have also been earmarked to expand the RAP platform into additional preclinical and discovery programs, as well as for working capital and other general business purposes.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech came out of stealth in 2018, going on to ink partnerships with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Biogen. But CAMP4 later ended those partnerships as the company's focus shifted from signaling pathways to regulatory RNA, a space in which it signed a research deal with BioMarin only last week.
Upstream, which has also unveiled some numbers for its own IPO plans, is hoping for a public offering almost three times the size of CAMP4’s. According to an SEC filing uploaded this morning, Upstream hopes to sell 12.5 million shares at a price somewhere between $15 and $17 apiece.
Assuming that the final price ends up at $16, this should rake in $182 million in net proceeds—bumped up to $209.9 million if underwriters scoop up an additional 1.8 million shares at the same price.
The Waltham, Massachusetts-based biotech already spelled out last month how part of the proceeds will go toward completing an ongoing phase 2 trial of verekitug in severe asthma, as well as launching a phase 3 study in the same indication. Funds will also be used to continue an ongoing phase 2 study of verekitug in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, with plans for a phase 3 to follow. In addition, the biotech has its eye on a potential phase 2 study in COPD.
The company has pitched verekitug as the “only known antagonist currently in clinical development that targets the receptor for thymic stromal lymphopoietin.” This cytokine is a known driver of the inflammatory response, affecting a range of immune-mediated diseases.