Heart drug biotech Kardigan raises $400m in upscaled IPO
Gerd Altmann
Cardiovascular drug developer Kardigan has completed its IPO, and in common with the prevailing trend in Nasdaq listings this year, has raised substantially more than it originally anticipated.
The gross proceeds have come in at around $400 million, with 25 million shares sold for $16 apiece, which compares to Kardigan's earlier objective of selling 23.3 million at a range of $14 to $16. The final tally could be increased by another $60 million or so if underwriters take up an option to buy another 3.75 million shares at the final price.
The proceeds – which top up cash reserves of around $287 million held by Kardigan at the end of March – will go towards the company's three clinical-stage drug candidates, which are all in late-stage development, along with R&D and general corporate purposes.
Between $80 million and $90 million is earmarked for danicamtiv, an oral cardiac myosin activator for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) driven by MYH7 and TTN gene variants in genes coding for the sarcomere, the functional unit of muscle tissue. That should allow Kardigan to complete an ongoing phase 2b trial and the start of phase 3 development, according to its IPO prospectus.
The company has allocated the same amount to ataciguat, a once-daily, oral soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) activator for calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS), and $40 million to $50 million for tonlamarsen, an angiotensinogen-targeted subcutaneous antisense oligonucleotide for blood pressure management in acute severe hypertension (ASH).
Once again, that should fund the completion of ongoing phase 2b studies of the two drugs and the start of phase 3, with another $50 million to $60 million pledged to other R&D activities. That includes the further development of its Prolaio platform for applying AI to cardiovascular drug development, which it acquired for up to $200 million.
Phase 2b data from the KINSHIP-DCM trial of danicamtiv is due in the first half of 2027, with a series of readouts from the KATALYST-AV study of ataciguat and the KARDINAL study of tonlamarsen also expected next year.
Founded by former executives from MyoKardia – which was bought by Bristol Myers Squibb for $13.1 billion in 2020 – Kardigan is based in Princeton, New Jersey, with a second site in South San Francisco.
Kardigan's stock is due to start trading on the Nasdaq tomorrow under the KARD ticker symbol.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
