Sept 21 (Reuters) – Drug developer Iambic Therapeutics, backed by chip giant Nvidia and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, filed for a US initial public offering on Monday, bolstering a busy slate of biotech listings in the fall window.
While the fall IPO window has gotten off to a rocky start amid uncertainty surrounding the Iran war, AI-led disruptions, rising bond yields and interest rate hikes, analysts say biotech listings have remained relatively insulated from such pressures.
Issuance from the sector this year has been supported by a wave of acquisitions by large drugmakers.
Drug developers Retension Pharmaceuticals and TRex Bio also filed for US IPOs on Friday, while ADARx Pharmaceuticals launched its roadshow earlier on Monday.
“All five of the year’s best-performing IPOs ($50 million deal size and above) are biotechs. Much of that is being driven by drug advancement and M&A,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.
Founded in 2019 as Entos, Iambic is advancing a pipeline of drug candidates developed using its AI platform to treat solid tumors.
Its most advanced candidate, IAM1363, is being developed in an early-stage trial to treat solid tumors such as breast cancer.
Earlier in the day, Iambic and drugmaker AbbVie unveiled a multi-year collaboration to accelerate AI-driven discovery of small molecule therapies.
The San Diego, California-based company also has partnerships with drugmakers such as Takeda, Lundbeck, Revolution Medicines, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Bayer.
Iambic, which plans to sell new shares in the offering, has raised roughly $461.8 million from technology- and healthcare-focused investors since inception.
Besides Nvidia and Qatar Investment Authority, Iambic counts investment firms Catalio, Nexus Ventures and Coatue Management among its major backers.
J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, BofA Securities and Citigroup are the underwriters for the offering. Iambic aims to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “IAM”.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
