Artiva Biotherapeutics is hoping to rake in up to $135 million from a planned IPO, with the proceeds ear-marked for automimmune clinical trials for a lead allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapy.
San Diego-based Artiva unveiled the plans in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing at the end of June, but only this morning set out its expectations of selling 8.7 million shares priced between $14 and $16 apiece.
Assuming that the final price falls in the middle of this range, this will bring the biotech $116.8 million in net proceeds—rising to $135 million if underwriters take up their 30-day option to buy an additional 1.3 million shares at the same price of $15.
Top of the list of spending priorities will be continuing the clinical development of a non-genetically modified, cryopreserved NK cell therapy called AlloNK. The candidate is currently in a phase 1 lupus nephritis trial in combination with Roche’s Rituxan or Gazyva, and AlloNK also features in a separate basket study in multiple autoimmune indications.
A readout from at least one of these indications is expected in the first half of 2025. On top of that, there's an ongoing phase 1/2 trial of AlloNK for B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
When Artiva reported in April that the first patient had been dosed in the lupus nephritis trial, the biotech claimed this was the first time that an allogeneic, off-the-shelf NK cell therapy had been administered in a U.S. clinical trial for treatment of an autoimmune disease.
Artiva had previously caught the attention of Merck & Co., which handed over $30 million upfront for the global licenses for two off-the-shelf solid tumor cell therapies. However, the biotech disclosed in its initial IPO announcement last month that the Big Pharma walked away from the pact in October 2023.
Most biotechs that have gone public this year have struggled to maintain their share price. The most recent entry was TYK2 inhibitor-focused Alumis, whose stock ended Friday trading at $11.09—a 30% drop on its $16 debut on June 28.