It’s an unusually busy Friday for biotech IPOs, with Zenas BioPharma, MBX and Bicara Therapeutics all going public with fine-tuned offerings.
Of today’s three Nasdaq debuts, Bicara is set to make the biggest splash. The cancer-focused biotech is now offering 17.5 million shares at $18 apiece, a significant advance on the 11.8 million shares the company had originally expected to offer when it set out IPO plans last week.
Rather than the $210 million the company had originally hoped to raise , Bicara's offering this morning should bring in around $315 million—with potentially a further $47 million to come if underwriters take up their 30-day option to buy an additional 2.6 million shares at the same price. The final share price of $18 also marks the top end of the $16-$18 range the biotech previously set out.
Bicara, which will trade under the ticker "BCAX" from this morning, is seeking money to fund a pivotal phase 2/3 clinical trial of ficerafusp alfa in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The biotech plans to use the late-phase data to support a filing for FDA approval of its bifunctional antibody that targets EGFR and TGF-β.
Zenas has also slightly increased its own offering, expecting to bring in $225 million in gross proceeds via the sale of 13.2 million shares of its public stock at $17 apiece. Underwriters also have a 30-day option to buy almost 2 million additional shares at the same price, which could reap a further $33.7 million.
That potential combined total of almost $260 million marks an increase on the $208.6 million in net proceeds the biotech had originally planned to bring in by selling 11.7 million shares initially followed by 1.7 million to underwriters.
Zenas’ stock will begin trading under the ticker “ZBIO” this morning.
The biotech explained last month how its top priority will be funding a slate of studies of obexelimab in multiple indications, including an ongoing phase 3 trial in people with the chronic fibro-inflammatory condition immunoglobulin G4-related disease. Phase 2 trials in multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus and a phase 2/3 study in warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia make up the rest of the slate.
Obexelimab targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, mimicking the natural antigen-antibody complex to inhibit a broad B-cell population. Because the bifunctional antibody is designed to block, rather than deplete or destroy, B-cell lineage, Zenas believes chronic dosing may achieve better outcomes, over longer courses of maintenance therapy, than existing drugs.
Joining Bicara and Zenas on the Nasdaq today is MBX, which has also slightly upsized its offering. The autoimmune-focused biotech started the week estimating that it would sell 8.5 million shares priced between $14 and $16 apiece.
Not only has the company since settled on the top end of this price range, but it has also bumped up the overall amount of shares available in the IPO to 10.2 million. It means that instead of the $114.8 million in net proceeds that MBX was discussing on Monday, it’s now looking at $163.2 million in gross proceeds, according to a post-market release Sept. 12.
The company could rake in a further $24.4 million if underwriters fully exercise their option to buy an additional 1.53 million shares.
MBX’s stock is due to list on the Nasdaq this morning under the ticker “MBX,” and the company has already set out how it will use its IPO proceeds to advance its two clinical-stage candidates, including the hypoparathyroidism therapy MBX 2109. The aim is to report top-line data from a phase 2 trial in the third quarter of 2025 and then take the drug into phase 3.