IPO Alert: What to look for when Boundless Bio goes public

Boundless Bio is preparing to debut on the Nasdaq stock market this week, and become the latest addition to the list of biotech firms that have launched IPOs this year. Backed by Bayer, the company develops therapeutics for oncogene-amplified cancers. With a market cap of around $356 million, Boundless Bio is specialized in extrachromosomal DNA which causes oncogene amplification in cancer patients.

The company will issue around 6.3 million shares at an offer price in the range of $15 per share to $17 per share. At the mid-point of the offer price, the company will raise up to $101 million in its initial public offering, if underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full. The IPO is managed by Goldman Sachs, Leerink Partners, Piper Sandler, and Guggenheim Securities. After listing, the stock will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol BOLD.

Use of Proceeds

The San Diego-based healthcare firm, which was founded in 2018, intends to use proceeds from the offering, together with existing cash and cash equivalents, mainly to fund the research and development of its ecDTx, ecDNA diagnostic tests, and Spyglass platform. The remaining proceeds will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Of late, there has been a steady increase in biotech IPOs — eight biotechnology companies have gone public in the US so far this year. Combined, they raised a total of about $1.2 billion, marking a sharp increase from the total raised in the comparable periods in each of the last two years. The upcoming IPO should elicit significant interest among investors because Boundless Bio is probably the first company to focus on treating oncogene-amplified cancers.

For fiscal 2023, the company reported a net loss of $49.43 million, which is wider than the $45.9 million loss it incurred in the previous year. At $54.8 million, total operating expenses were up 18%. At the end of the year, Boundless Bio had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of around $121 million.

Clinical Trial

Boundless Bio’s lead ecDNA-directed therapy, BBI-355, is currently being studied in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with oncogene-amplified cancers. The study is called Precision Oncology Trial Evaluating Novel Therapeutic Interrupting Amplifications Tied to ecDNA. Besides that, the company has identified a second CHK1 inhibitor candidate with a differentiated profile — BBI-098 is an oral, selective CHK1 inhibitor that demonstrates central nervous system penetrance in preclinical models.