ARR-002

Pictured: Nasdaq sign on building in New York City/iStock, hapabapa Cancer-focused ArriVent Biopharma announced late Thursday that it is looking at around $175 million in gross proceeds from its upsized initial public offering. The company, which is the second biotech to go public this year, will start trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on Friday under the symbol AVBP. ArriVent is putting over 9.7 million shares of its common stock up for sale at $18 apiece. Underwriters also have 30 days to purchase up to nearly 1.5 million more shares of ArriVent common stock at the IPO price, minus discounts and commissions. The biotech expects close its offering on Jan. 30, pending customary conditions. The company’s $175 million haul is higher than what it initially expected to make, which last week the biotech estimated to be around $135 million to $156 million. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Citigroup are joint book-running managers for ArriVent’s IPO, while LifeSci Capital is its lead manager. ArriVent is debuting on Nasdaq on the heels of its fellow cancer drugmaker CG Oncology, which went public on Thursday, raising a gross of $380 million in its own upsized offering. Several other biopharma companies are also gearing up for an IPO, including Metagenomi, Kyverna Therapeutics, Alto Neuroscience and Fractyl Health. ArriVent has a late-stage cancer asset in furmonertinib, an orally available and highly brain-penetrant inhibitor of the EGFR protein. According to the biotech’s website, furmonertinib’s activity is mutation-selective and can target classical EGFR mutations, including exon 19 deletions and L858R point mutations, as well as uncommon alterations such as exon 20 insertions. The biotech currently has a Phase III study assessing furmonertinib in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with exon 20 insertion mutations. The candidate is also in two other Phase Ib trials for NSCLC harboring different mutations. Furmonertinib has been approved in China for the treatment of NSCLC with T790M point mutations and as a first-line option for NSCLC with classical EGFR mutations. It carries the brand name Ivesa. ArriVent also has a very early candidate ARR-002, which it is developing in collaboration with Aarvik Therapeutics. The partners plan to advance ARR-002, which is still currently in the discovery phase, as a novel therapeutic agent for solid tumors. Aarvik will usher the candidate through preclinical studies, while ArriVent will be responsible for its clinical development and commercialization. According to an SEC document filed last week, ArriVent has already earmarked most of its IPO proceeds. Around $50 million to $60 million will help support the New Drug Application for furmonertinib as a frontline treatment option for NSCLC patients carrying exon 20 insertion EGFR mutations. The Aarvik partnership will get $5 million to $10 million. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.