IPO News: Here are a few things to note when Dice Therapeutics goes public

Many pharma companies are lining up to go public and this week will see Dice Therapeutics join the group. The California-based firm, which is changing its name to Dice Therapeutics from DiCE Molecules Holdings, is focused on developing treatments for chronic diseases in immunology and other therapeutic areas.

IPO details

Dice Therapeutics is slated to go public on Wednesday, September 15. The company will begin trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol DICE. Dice will offer 10 million shares at a price range of $15 to $17 to raise $160 million. The IPO will be managed by a group of underwriters led by BofA Securities.

Company intro

Dice Therapeutics is focused on developing oral therapeutics against well-validated targets in immunology. According to its filings, the company’s DELSCAPE platform works on discovering selective oral small molecules that can modulate protein-protein interactions with the same effectiveness as systemic biologics. Dice believes there is a significant unmet medical need for convenient oral therapies in chronic immunological diseases.

In July, Dice filed a Clinical Trial Application with the MHRA in the UK for its lead therapeutic candidate S011806, which is intended for the treatment of psoriasis. The company is planning on initiating a Phase I clinical trial in healthy volunteers and psoriasis patients. Dice is also developing oral therapeutic candidates for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Financials

Dice has thus far generated its revenue solely from research collaborations and activities and the company has not generated any revenue from product sales. Collaboration revenue totaled $0.9 million in 2020. The company recorded a net loss of $23.7 million for the year.  

Market opportunity

Dice states in its filings that some of the drugs that are successful both clinically and commercially are biologics that modulate extracellular signalling by binding to cellular receptors or their ligands. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) form one such class of biologics and these represented a market of over $150 billion in 2020.

The company’s lead candidate S011806 is an orally-available small molecule antagonist of IL-17 being developed for the treatment of psoriasis. The global psoriasis drug market was estimated to be $20 billion in 2020, based on data from Evaluate Pharma. The total market opportunity for therapeutics targeting all IL-17 mAb-approved indications represented $26 billion in 2020.

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