Kyverna Therapeutics Inc shares rose as much as 59 percent in early trading on Thursday after its expanded US initial public offering (IPO) raised US$319 million, as drug developers continue to receive a warm welcome from new investors.
Emeryville, California-based Kyverna’s shares gave back some of those gains to end the session at US$30 each in New York, 36 percent above the IPO price of US$22.
At that price, the Bain Capital LP-backed biotechnology company has a market value of about US$1.2 billion.
Photo: Reuters
The opening surge was the biggest for a company raising more than US$100 million in an IPO since Cava Group Inc’s US$365 million debut in June last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Kyverna had a tough time deciding who to allocate shares to given “very large mutual funds were willing to come into the story and wanted to be part of” the deal, chief executive officer Peter Maag said in an interview. The IPO was about “20-times oversubscribed,” he said.
“This is a tremendous outcome for the organization as it gives us the capital to execute our clinical trial program,” Maag said.
The funds are expected to provide a runway into 2026 and set it up for potential pivotal trials, he said.
The strong results continue a streak of therapeutics companies drawing heightened investor demand.
The offering is the second-largest for a drug developer this year, after cancer-focused CG Oncology Inc raised US$437 million two weeks ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its shares have more than doubled since its debut.
Kyverna’s lead medicine is a CAR T-cell therapy for autoimmune diseases in rheumatology and neurology. Bain Capital, Gilead Sciences Inc, Vida Ventures LLC and Westlake BioPartners LLC are among Kyverna’s largest investors, according to the company’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kyverna is part of a busy week for US IPOs that includes American Healthcare REIT Inc, which raised US$672 million and is up nearly 10 percent, and a Mexican grocery chain. Also in biotech, Moderna Inc-backed Metagenomi Inc’s offering was slated to price later on Thursday.
HSBC Innovation Banking managing director Jonathan Norris expects about 25 venture capital-backed biotech IPOs in the US and Europe this year.
There will be “more later-stage than earlier companies with a focus on drugs that have opportunities for catalysts in the near-term,” Norris said.
Drug developers have been actively raising cash through sales of new shares to public investors this year.
The industry has raised nearly US$5 billion via follow-on offerings, data compiled by Bloomberg showed, more than double the amount seen through Feb. 7 last year.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors