Two more biotechs, Metsera and Maze, cross IPO finish line
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Metsera and Maze Therapeutics have become the second and third biotechs to complete an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq this year, raising $275 million and $140 million, respectively.
New York-based Metsera priced its offering at $18 per share, above its targeted range, which reflects the strong appetite among investors for companies developing drugs for obesity and those who are overweight. It sold just under 15.3 million shares and the underwriters have the option to buy another 2.3 million shares within the next 30 days. Trading is due to start today on the Nasdaq under the MTSR ticker.
Genetic medicines company Maze meanwhile sold 8.75 million shares at $16 apiece, with another 1.3 million on offer to the underwriters for the next month. The South San Francisco-based company, which will trade under the MAZE symbol, should also see trading start today.
The two have gone public just a few days after China's Ascentage Pharma claimed the number one biotech IPO spot for the year with its $126 million raise.
Metsera's IPO comes less than a year after it emerged from stealth with a $290 million Series A, adding another $215 million to the pot in a Series B completed just a few weeks later, and provides much-needed resources as it advances a pipeline of candidates in the obesity category, currently dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, but likely to get considerably more crowded.
Its lead asset is MET-097i, an ultra-long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist that phase 1/2 studies suggest could be dosed monthly, challenging Novo Nordisk's Wegovy (semaglutide) and Lilly's Zepbound (tirzepatide), currently the two biggest-selling obesity drugs, which need to be injected once a month. It is currently in phase 2b testing, with data due later this year.
Following after is MET-233i, an ultra-long-acting amylin analogue that will be developed as a monotherapy and in combination with GLP-1-acting drugs and is in phase 1.
Maze is developing small-molecule precision medicines for patients living with renal, cardiovascular, and related metabolic diseases, including obesity, and its pipeline is led by oral APOL1 inhibitor MZE829 and oral SCL6A19 inhibitor MZE782, which are both in early-stage clinical development.
MZE829 is in a phase 2 trial in APOL1 kidney disease (AKD), with results expected in 2026, while MZE782 is currently in a phase 1 healthy volunteer study and is a potential therapy for chronic kidney disease (CKD), as well as phenylketonuria (PKU).
The company completed a $115 million Series D in December, which followed rounds worth $191 million and $190 million in 2019 and 2021, respectively.