The antibody-based drug developer has raised $77m in financing, with Merck leading its $30m series B round in 2014.

Visterra, a US-based biopharmaceutical company that counts pharmaceutical firm Merck among its investors, filed for a $69m initial public offering on Nasdaq on Tuesday.

Founded in 2007, Visterra is developing antibody-based therapies based on its Hierotope platform to treat infectious diseases caused by organisms with a high level of diversity among strains, frequent mutations and a resistance to treatment.

The proceeds from the offering will support phase 2b clinical trials for VIS410, a monoclonal antibody Visterra is developing for…