Metsera, Inc.

Cystic fibrosis drug developer Sionna Therapeutics hopes to join the IPO wave started by Metsera and Maze Therapeutics last week. Sionna, which snagged some of its programs from AbbVie last year, hopes to garner net proceeds of $135 million from its proposed Nasdaq debut as $SION, according to an updated SEC filing on Monday morning. The biotech had revealed its IPO intentions at the same time as immunology drug developer Odyssey Therapeutics a day after the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference concluded last month. Odyssey has not yet revealed its IPO sizing. Sionna, Odyssey and a handful of other biotech startups seek to follow obesity-focused Metsera and kidney disease drug developer Maze. Metsera and Maze floated last Friday , raising about $275 million and $140 million, respectively. Metsera popped 47% $MTSR in its first day of trading, perhaps a sign of investors’ ongoing enthusiasm for new obesity medications. Maze, meanwhile, struggled to stay at its launch price, ending the first day down 0.31% $MAZE . After the listings from Sionna, Odyssey and other Nasdaq hopefuls Aardvark and Aurion, the IPO market will likely be quiet for a few weeks as companies digest year-end audits, Raymond James bankers wrote in a biotech market check on Sunday evening. Activity will then likely resume in early March. “A growing backlog of 10-15 biotechs are watching the market and could potentially launch in that window,” the Raymond James team wrote. “It is clear that launching an IPO in this market is not an obvious yes and we expect companies to be appropriately cautious.” In its updated IPO planning docs, Sionna outlined an offering of 8.82 million shares. It’s marketing the shares at $16 to $18 apiece. Last week, Metsera priced above its range, but sold fewer shares than initially planned. Maze, on the other hand, sold more shares than initially anticipated but priced at the midpoint of its marketed range. Metsera’s IPO was oversubscribed 14-fold, the Raymond James bankers said. “The majority of this early wave of IPOs this year needs to trade well in the aftermarket to have a functioning and constructive IPO market going forward,” the bankers wrote. Boston-based Sionna disclosed a $182 million Series C last year and shortly after disclosed an in-licensing deal for three experimental cystic fibrosis drugs from AbbVie. While the upfront payments were minimal — $5 million plus $8.6 million worth of common stock — AbbVie stands to receive up to $490 million in development, commercial and sales-based biobucks. Sionna plans for topline Phase 1 data on its NBD1 stabilizers SION-719 and SION-451 in the first half of this year. It will then select one of those for a Phase 2a in the second half of 2025, according to its IPO paperwork. The biotech also has clinically-tested assets galicaftor, a TMD1-directed CFTR corrector, and navocaftor, a CFTR potentiator. Galapagos had originally tested them before handing them to AbbVie . Founded in 2019, Sionna isn’t in dire need of cash. CEO Mike Cloonan, a former Sage and Biogen executive, told Endpoints News last year that the Series C would bankroll Sionna through 2026 . The company still had $180 million in cash, equivalents and marketable securities at the end of September, according to its S-1 filing. In the first nine months of 2024, it devoted $43 million to R&D. Its biggest investors include RA Capital, TPG Growth, Atlas Venture and OrbiMed. Odyssey, meanwhile, hopes to go public with a new chief financial officer announced just last month. Jason Haas joined after a three-year stint in the same post at Syros Pharmaceuticals . Prior to that, he was a longtime investment banker at Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

Maze Therapeutics\' final share price fell squarely in the middle of the $15 to $17 range it set out recently, while it raised the number of shares on offer from 7.8 million to 8.7 million. \n Obesity biotech Metsera and renal and metabolic-focused Maze Therapeutics have met their IPO expectations as the two companies prepare to join the Nasdaq this morning.While Metsera is offering less shares, 15.3 million, than the 17.2 million it had planned in recent days, the final IPO price of $18 per share has exceeded the $15-$17 range it had initially expected. It means the gross proceeds from the offering should still match the company’s ballpark estimation of above $275 million.Underwriters also have the option to bring in around $41 million in additional proceeds if they fully take up their 30-day option to buy 2.3 million shares at the same price.The New York-based company, which will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “MTSR” this morning, has previously set out plans to use the proceeds from the listing to fund a phase 3 trial of MET-097i—a subcutaneous GLP-1 receptor agonist that is the company’s most advanced asset. The biotech recently linked the injectable candidate to weight loss of up to 11.3% after 12 weeks in a phase 2a trial. Meanwhile, Maze’s final share price fell squarely in the middle of the $15-$17 range it set out recently, while it raised the number of shares on offer from 7.8 million to 8.7 million. Having eyed up net proceeds of $113.6 million, the biotech said today that gross proceeds from the offering should reach $140 million.That figure could be bumped up by a further $21 million if underwriters take up their 30-day option to buy an additional 1.3 million shares at the same price.The biotech, which will list under the ticker “MAZE” this morning, has previously said its top priority will be MZE829, an oral APOL1 inhibitor being tested for APOL1 kidney disease, with dosing in an ongoing phase 2 expected to begin in the coming weeks. There’s also MZE782, an oral SCL6A19 inhibitor in a phase 1 trial with healthy volunteers and plans to pursue the drug in chronic kidney disease and phenylketonuria.

Obesity drug developer Metsera and kidney disease biotech Maze Therapeutics priced their Nasdaq IPOs on Thursday evening. Metsera $MTSR will raise $275 million and Maze $MAZE will raise $140 million in their initial public offerings, according to announcements by the companies Thursday evening. When they begin trading in New York on Friday, the two biotech companies could set the tone for what appears to be a mini-revival of IPOs by drug developers. Behind them are four other startups — Sionna , Odyssey , Aardvark and Aurion — that have also filed to go public. Metsera and Maze both check many of the boxes sought by public market investors: Both have drug candidates already being tested in humans, experienced management teams steering their R&D and business development engines, marquee crossover investor names, near-term clinical readouts, and came into their IPOs with plenty of spare cash. ARCH Venture Partners and Alphabet’s GV are large shareholders in both companies. Metsera’s IPO is being propelled by investors’ interest in obesity, a field that some industry insiders anticipate will become the largest pharmaceutical market in history. The New York-based drug developer, founded by veterans of The Medicines Company, has a Phase 2b-stage GLP-1 receptor agonist called MET-097i , a Phase 1 amylin analog and multiple other drug candidates. Metsera will begin trading at $18 per share, above the $15 to $17 range it marketed to investors earlier this week. It sold 15.27 million shares, against an original plan of 17.18 million. Maze will launch at $16 per share, the midpoint of the range it proposed at the beginning of this week. It floated 8.75 million shares, against the initial plan of 7.8 million shares. Its lead asset is an oral small molecule being investigated in Phase 2 for APOL1 kidney disease. It also has another small molecule in Phase 1 for chronic kidney disease. Maze’s journey has been somewhat unusual. It sold its Pompe disease treatment candidate to Shionogi last year after the FTC blocked a deal with Sanofi . The IPO filing contains details of the Shionogi deal, showing that in addition to a $150 million upfront payment, Shionogi could pay as much as $275 million for clinical and regulatory milestones and up to $330 million if specific sales marks are hit. The Japanese pharma could also pay low double-digit to 20% royalties on net sales. Maze has created several joint ventures, as well. One, ophthalmology-focused Broadwing Bio out-licensed an ANGPTL7 program to an undisclosed biotech in August, according to the financial filing. Contour Therapeutics, a cardiovascular-focused JV with BridgeBio, dissolved in October 2022. Maze also outlicensed a discovery program targeting ATXN2 to Neurocrine last year for $2.5 million upfront and up to $200 million in biobucks, according to the filing.