Sigilon Therapeutics, a US-based chronic illness therapy developer based on research primarily from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has filed for a $100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.
Founded in 2015, Sigilon has built a drug development platform dubbed Shielded Living Therapeutics which it is using to create therapeutic molecules that can make up for proteins, antibodies and hormones that might be deficient or missing in a patient.
The company plans to put the IPO proceeds into a phase 1/2 clinical trial for a haemophilia A drug candidate called SIG-001, in addition to expanding its manufacturing processes for SIG-001 and SIG-005, a second candidate being developed to treat mucopolysaccharidosis type 1, a rare lysosomal storage disease.
Sigilon was co-founded by a team of researchers from MIT – Daniel Anderson, Robert Langer, Arturo Vegas and Omid Veiseh – in collaboration with José Oberholzer, who was then at University of Illinois at Chicago.
It has raised more than $195m in funding to date, including $80.3m in a series B round in March this year backed by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s CPP Investments unit, Flagship Pioneering, Longevity Vision Fund and funds managed by BlackRock.
Flagship Pioneering, which supplied $23.5m for Sigilon in 2017 as its founding investor, owns 48.3% of its shares. The company’s other notable shareholders are Eli Lilly (11.4%), as well as Anderson and Langer (10.3% each).
Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Barclays and Canaccord Genuity have been appointed as joint bookrunners.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

Sigilon Therapeutics, a US-based chronic illness therapy developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, has filed for a $100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Founded in 2015, Sigilon has built a drug development platform dubbed Shielded Living Therapeutics which it is using to create therapeutic molecules that can make up for proteins, antibodies and hormones that might be deficient or missing in a patient.

The company plans to put the IPO proceeds into a phase 1/2 clinical trial for a haemophilia A drug candidate called SIG-001, in addition to expanding its manufacturing processes for SIG-001 and SIG-005, a second candidate being developed to treat a disease known as mucopolysaccharidosis type 1.

Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Barclays Capital and Canaccord Genuity are the underwriters for the offering, which will comes after more than $195m in funding for Sigilon, including an $80.3m series B round in March this year in which Eli Lilly invested $12m, according to the IPO filing.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s CPP Investments unit, Flagship Pioneering, Longevity Vision Fund and funds managed by BlackRock also took part in the series B round.

Flagship Pioneering, which supplied $23.5m for Sigilon in 2017 as its founding investor, owns 48.3% of its shares. The company’s other notable shareholders are Eli Lilly (11.4%) and academic co-founders Daniel Anderson and Robert Langer (10.3% each).