IPO news: A few points to keep in mind as Vaxxinity makes its market debut this week

The healthcare industry continues to thrive and many companies in this sector have lined up to go public in recent times. One such candidate is biotech company Vaxxinity, which is set to make its market debut this week. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

IPO details  

Vaxxinity Inc. is set to go public on Thursday, November 11. It will begin trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol VAXX. The company will offer 6.7 million shares at a price range of between $14 and $16. The IPO will be managed by a group of underwriters led by BofA Securities.

Company intro

Vaxxinity is a biotechnology company that is looking to change the existing treatment paradigm for chronic diseases, which is dominated by drugs, specifically monoclonal antibodies, and come with high costs and cumbersome administration.

The company believes its synthetic peptide vaccine platform, or Vaxxine Platform, has the potential to bring in a new class of therapeutics that will lower costs, improve convenience and pave the way for treating a wide range of indications.

The Vaxxine Platform is designed to harness the immune system to stimulate the production of antibodies with a therapeutic or protective effect. Although this approach is used by traditional vaccines to combat infectious diseases, it has been less effective against chronic diseases.

The company’s current pipeline focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, migraine and hypercholesterolemia.   

Financials

The company generated $557,000 in revenue for 2020 versus nil in 2019. Net loss for 2020 amounted to $39.9 million compared to $14.2 million in 2019. For the six months ended June 30, 2021, net revenue amounted to $17,000 versus $440,000 in the same period a year ago. Net loss amounted to $58.5 million versus $10.7 million.

Market opportunity

The current healthcare paradigm favors the development of drugs that are mainly intended for niche indications and for disease treatment than prevention. Biologics, particularly mABs, typifies the current environment. The global market for mABs totaled approx. $163 billion in 2019, representing approx. 70% of the total sales for all biopharmaceutical products.

The company believes its Vaxxine Platform has the potential to generate product candidates that offer significant advantages over both mABs and small molecule therapeutics in terms of cost, administration, efficacy and safety.

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