The cancer treatment developer has raised $94m in equity and grant funding, with Pfizer, Celgene and Baxter among its shareholders.
US-based cancer treatment developer Mirna Therapeutics filed for an $80.5m initial public offering on Nasdaq on Monday after securing venture funding from several pharmaceutical companies.
Mirna, which counts Pfizer, Celgene and Baxter among its investors, develops oncology therapeutics based on microRNA technology, which creates mimics of ribonucleic acids that supress tumours.
The company plans to spend up to $65m of the IPO proceeds and cash on hand to fund clinical development expenses for its lead drug candidate, MRX34, advancing it through Phase 1 clinical trials and initiating a Phase 2 trial.
Between $21m and $27m will go towards preclinical and clinical studies for a second product candidate.
Mirna has raised about $78m in equity and $15m in grant funding since it was formed in 2007.
That amount includes $41.8m from a May 2015 series D round led by Baxter Ventures, Baxter’s corporate venturing unit, and backed by Pfizer Ventures, Celgene, Santé Ventures, Morningside Ventures, Rock Springs Capital, Sofinnova Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Osage University Partners and Correlation Ventures.
The round followed a $34.5m series C round in 2012 featuring Pfizer Venture Investments, Correlation Ventures, Osage University Partners and NEA.
Pfizer holds a 15% stake in Mirna and Baxter owns 5.3%, but its largest shareholders are NEA and Sofinnova, which each hold a 17.8% stake. Other backers include the State of Texas (7.1%) and Eastern Capital (6.4%).
Citigroup Global Markets and Leerink Partners are the joint bookrunners for the offering, while Oppenheimer and Cantor Fitzgerald are also serving as underwriters.
