It’s a new $ DAWN for day one as startup turns to IPO for more funding to support its work in pediatric cancer – Endpoints News
Pediatric cancer biotechnology Day One Pharmaceuticals is heading to the Nasdaq, in a move less than three months after their work on a brain cancer treatment led to a nine-digit cross-cycle backed by some blue-chip investors .
The south-San Francisco-based company is cashing in $ 100 million as an initial IPO target, although the final increase is likely higher. Tuesday’s filing comes after RA Capital led a $ 130 million funding round for the company in February, following what CEO Jeremy Bender said at the time was a “rapid” advance in their business. main program.
When the first day prices in a few weeks, it will trade under the symbol $ DAWN.
As the pharmaceutical industry continues to develop and advance cancer treatments, Day One executives argue that the major players have left pediatric cancer behind. Adult patients represent a much larger share of the market, the company said, and there have been delays in understanding pediatric biology properly.
Day One’s mission is therefore to try to fill this gap by developing targeted therapies specifically intended for children. The proposed treatments are entirely new efforts rather than reformulating adult treatments that come with significant side effects, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Their main program is a former Takeda program called DAY101, an oral pan-RAF inhibitor that can cross the blood-brain barrier and block mutations in gliomas. As such, Day One is aimed at an indication for treating low-grade pediatric gliomas, the most common form of brain tumors in children. The current standard of care is platinum-based chemotherapy, with no clear favorites beyond that, Bender said. Endpoints News in February.
Biotechnology recently launched a phase II study for the investigational drug, with the aim of reading the first results in the first half of 2022. Day one plans to eventually enroll 60 patients in the open-label single-arm study and hopes it can form the basis of an approval dossier.
As part of its S-1, Day One plans to channel its money not only to this phase II trial, but also to launch a new phase III study for the first-line treatment of low-grade pediatric gliomas during the year. next. Its objectives also include a phase II trial for RAF-modified solid tumors in patients over 12 years of age, as well as a phase Ib / II study combining DAY101 with the MEK inhibitor of Merck KgGA, pimasertib for treat adult solid tumors modified with MAPK.
S-1 also provided some details regarding this deal with Takeda and the company’s equity. Day One only paid $ 1 million for candidate DAY101 and, at the time of the deal, in December 2019, offered a Takeda subsidiary an approximate 12% stake in the company. The subsidiary, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, will continue to hold this stake when Day One goes public.
Bender, for his part, has a 3% stake, while CMO and founder Sam Blackman has a 4.6% stake. The largest stakeholder is Canaan Partners at 21.9%, followed by Atlas Venture Fund at 16.9%.
Day One also noted that Derek DiRocco, the RA Capital partner who joined the board with the February raise, will be leaving the company after a very short stint once biotech begins trading publicly.
Biotech IPOs continue to climb as 2021 progresses, with more than 50 companies filing or pricing their IPOs so far this year. For the year, the combined increase in biotechnology is approaching $ 6.5 billion and is expected to hit nearly $ 7 billion later this week when four more companies debut on the Nasdaq.
