Iksava As the latest listed company in Washington State, it made its debut. The Seattle-based biotechnology company’s stock price soared by more than 200% on its first trading day on Thursday.
Iksava After pricing the stock at $15 before trading began on Thursday, more than $180 million was raised. Its stock traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol ICVX, with an opening price of 29 US dollars per share, and reached more than 47 US dollars within an hour, and then fell back slightly. renew: The stock closed at $35 per share on Thursday, up 133%.
The company is a spin-off company of the University of Washington Protein Design Institute, Is developing vaccines similar to natural viruses.
Its virus-like particle technology was invented at the Institute of Protein Design by Neil King, the scientific co-founder of Icosavax, and David Baker, the head of IPD. Founder and CEO Adam Simpson (Adam Simpson) once led another IPD spin-off company PvP Biologics, which was sold to pharmaceutical company Takeda.
Since its establishment in 2017, Icosavax has raised more than US$150 million from private investors, including the most recent US$100 million in Series B financing.
Iksava Initiation of Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials In June of this year, with the support of a $10 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate was studied.
The company’s two COVID-19 vaccine candidates are made of spherical nanoparticles, which are embedded with 60 copies of the main viral component, a bit of spike protein.
Icosavax is also developing vaccines for the elderly against two viruses that cause pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV). There are currently no approved vaccines against these viruses.
“David and the Protein Design Institute are among the best scientists in the United States and the world, so I attach great importance to this technology and highly value the ability of this technology to create new and improved vaccines,” said Larry Corey, director of Seattle Professor Emeritus of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine and the visible role of science in responding to the pandemic have given biotechnology an advantage in the minds of the public and investors. Last year, the biotech IPO hit a record high. Biopharmaceutical diving, And this pace will continue until 2021. As of the end of June this year, 49 biotech companies have gone public, raising a total of US$8.8 billion.
“The amount of investment pouring into biotechnology and life sciences is incredible,” said Leslie Alexandre, CEO of Washington Life Sciences Corporation. “I believe that these technologies can prevent and treat some of the most serious diseases on the planet, just as people have realized this, and investors have indeed realized this and saw the opportunity.”
Icosavax is one of several companies and research institutions in the Seattle area that help research COVID-19 vaccines and related research. This is also the latest Washington State biotech startup test open market this year. Other companies include Sana Biotechnology, which raised US$587 million in its February IPO; Impel NeuroPharma, which raised US$80 million through its IPO in April; Nautilus Biotechnology, a proteomics company listed through SPAC last month; and Absci, the latter. A drug discovery platform is being developed and launched last week.
GeekWire reporter Charlotte Schubert contributed to this report.