Orchard plans to raise US$172m in ADS
British gene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics will go IPO on Nasdaq, according to SEC filings. The company plans to raise $172.5m as ADS in an IPO underwritten by J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Cowen and Wedbush PacGrow to balance its costs, which rose from US$13m to US$138m this year. Financial markets are expected to react positively.
Since Orchard Therapeutics Ltd, which will be renamed Orchard Therapeutics plc upon the deal, took over GlaxoSmithKline’s gene therapy portfolio including GSK’s EU-approved ADA-SCID treatment Strimvelis in April, its cost increased from $13m to $134m. In August, Orchard raised $150m in a Series C financing round led by Deerfield Management. GSK holds a 17.9% stake in the company.
Orchard said it will use the proceeds to build a manufacturing plant to produce Strimvelis and finance the EU roll out of the drug. Additionally, the company will expand its foothold in the US where it has three lentivirally-based gene therapy programmes in registrational stage: OTL-101 for ADA-SCID; OTL-103 for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome; and OTL-200 for metachromatic leukodystrophy.
The planned IPO underscores the conclusion of this years stock market report. BIOCOMs analysts found that Nasdaq is the preferred stock market for European biotech companies, particularly when they are in late-stage development or active in promising areas such as immunotherapies. Read more
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