Telix prices $200m IPO in big week for radiopharma financing

Australian radiopharmaceutical specialist Telix has revealed the terms of its planned initial public offering (IPO) in the US, revealing that it hopes to raise $202 million from a Nasdaq listing.

It was one of three financing announcements in the white hot radiopharma category this week, as AstraZeneca swelled the coffers of US-based Nucleus RadioPharma with an undisclosed addition to its $56 million Series A and Germany’s ITM Isotope Technologies raised €188 million ($205 million) in a new private round.

North Melbourne-based Telix said it is offering 17 million US shares at $11.87 – which matches the value of its Australian shares ahead of the disclosure and would give it a market cap of around $4.2 billion. It first announced plans for the US IPO last month.

It focuses on the development of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals and has one commercial product, Illucix (gallium Ga-68 gozetotide), which is a PSMA-targeted product for prostate cancer imaging and is used to identify patients eligible for PSMA-directed radioligand therapy with drugs like Novartis’ fast-growing Pluvicto (lutetium [lu177] vipivotide tetraxetan).

Its therapeutic pipeline includes potential Pluvicto rival TLX591 in phase 2/3 trials and TLX250 for advanced kidney cancer in mid-stage clinical testing. Meanwhile, on the diagnostics side, it has filed for FDA approval of Zircaix for kidney cancer and brain cancer (glioma) agent Pixclara.

Turning to ITM, the Munich start-up said the infusion of new capital will be used to advance a pipeline of radiopharma therapeutics headed by ITM-11 for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs), a potential rival to Novartis’ Lutathera (lutetium [177Lu] oxodotreotide), and expand its manufacturing capacity.

ITM-11 is in a pair of phase 3 trials – COMPETE and COMPOSE – and has been awarded fast-track status by the FDA. ITM’s pipeline also includes ITM-31 for glioblastoma in phase 1 testing and PSMA-directed diagnostic and therapeutic duo ITM-22/ITM-22D for prostate cancer.

Temasek led the financing with participation from funds managed by BlackRock Alternatives, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), ATHOS, and Carbyne. It comes just a year after ITM raised €255 million featuring many of the same backers.

Finally, Nucleus’s extension to Series A saw AZ join existing investors from GE Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, Eclipse Ventures, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Echo Global Granger Management Mercy Health, and the University of Missouri.

AZ’s head of corporate ventures Tyrell Rivers joined the start-up’s board of directors, with the investment in Nucleus coming a few weeks after AZ agreed a $2 billion takeover deal for radiopharma specialist Fusion Pharma.

Rochester, Minnesota-based Nucleus is a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) serving the radiopharma sector, operating a 12,000-square-foot research and development site near the Mayo Clinic. It said the new funding will “will facilitate the expansion of our development, supply, and commercial manufacturing capabilities, ultimately enhancing global accessibility to targeted radiotherapies and theranostics for patients worldwide.”

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