BioAge's $100m IPO, and other biotech financings

Our round-up of financings in the biotech sector this week is led by BioAge Lab's filing of an initial public offering (IPO), with a placeholder target of $100 million, plus sizeable private rounds for eGenesis, Navigator, and Circle Pharma.

The decision by BioAge to try for a Nasdaq listing comes after it raised $170 million in a fourth-round financing earlier this year, tapping into the investment frenzy for companies with assets in the clinic for obesity.

The company is focusing on the development of oral apelin receptor (APJ) agonist azelaprag, currently in a phase 2 trial in combination with Eli Lilly's FDA-approved obesity therapy Zepbound (tirzepatide), with results due in the third quarter of 2025.

The biotech believes that azelaprag can amplify the weight loss achieved with tirzepatide and other obesity drugs, and also improve the body composition of treated patients by preserving muscle function. It is also planning a monotherapy trial of the drug and hopes to take a brain-penetrant NLRP3 inhibitor for neuroinflammatory diseases into the clinic next year.

Pricing terms have not been disclosed in the SEC filing for the IPO, but Renaissance Capital has put the target at "up to $100 million." BioAge plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol BIOA.

Topping the list of recent private rounds is eGenesis, a developer of transplant organs from pigs designed to be compatible with humans, which raised $190 million in a Series D.

Proceeds will be used to advance the company's lead product for kidney transplant, EGEN-2784, into human trials, as well as to advance other pipeline programmes and scale up its production capacity for the organs. The financing comes after eGenesis reported the first implantation of its kidney 'xenotransplant' into a man with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in March, the first use of a genetically engineered porcine kidney in a living human recipient. There are over 100,000 people in the US on organ transplant waiting lists, most in need of replacement kidneys.

The new round was led by Lux Capital, with participation from existing investors as well as new backers including DaVita, Eisai Innovation, NATCO Pharma, and Parkwood Corp. It takes the total raised by the company since it was formed in 2017 to more than $450 million and follows a $125 million third round in 2021.

Navigator Medicines brought in $100 million in a first-round financing led by RA Capital Management and Forbion that will be used to develop a pipeline of autoimmune disease therapies, including NAV-240, a bispecific antibody targeting OX40L and TNFα that is newly licensed from South Korea's IMBiologics.

Founded as a subsidiary of Sera Medicines earlier this year, Navigator was set up to develop biologics for targeted immune regulation and restoration, specialising in bispecifics. NAV-240 (formerly IMB101) is its lead product, and is in phase 1 for "complex autoimmune diseases", according to a company statement.

The company has also announced the appointment of former Genentech and Alladapt Immunotherapeutics executive Dana McClintock as chief medical officer.

Finally, Circle Pharma raised $90 million in a Series D that will go towards clinical testing of CID-078, an orally active cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor in development as a treatment for solid tumours, and follow-up compounds in its 'macrocycle' class of drugs for cancer and other serious diseases. The company says its macrocycles lie between small-molecule and biologic drugs, combining the ease of delivery and absorption of the former with the targeting power of the latter.

Circle filed for FDA approval to start trials of CID-078 in July, targeting tumours characterised by high E2F expression, including small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and various forms of breast cancer.

The financing was led by The Column Group with participation from new and existing investors, including Nextech Invest and Euclidean Capital.