UT Southwestern-founded Taysha Gene Therapies surpassed its goal after underwriters bought additional shares.

Taysha Gene Therapies, a US-based central nervous system drug developer spun out of University of Texas Southwestern (UT Southwestern) Medical Center, has raised $181m in an upsized initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Taysha began trading on September 24 and closed the offering yesterday after issuing 7.8 million shares priced at $20.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies acted as joint book-running for the offering, while Chardan Capital Markets was appointed lead manager.  They exercised their 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.2 million shares.
Taysha originally filed for the listing in September 2020.
Founded in 2019, Taysha Gene Therapies targets monogenic central nervous system (CNS) diseases in which the body is unable to express a specific protein because of a lone faulty gene or gene pair.
The spinout has a portfolio of 17 gene therapies as well as four option agreements largely based on UT Southwestern’s research.
Taysha’s portfolio includes a clinical-stage gene replacement therapy, TSHA-101, for the CNS disorder GM2-Gangliosidosis and further candidates for indications such as SURF1 deficiency, Rett syndrome and SLC6A1 haploinsufficiency.
The capital is anticipated to advance its existing pipeline, funding discovery-stage research as well as manufacturing, quality control and regulatory work on its latter-phase assets.
Taysha could also use some of the proceeds to acquire or licence additional drugs for its portfolio.
The spinout’s chief executive RA Session had his stake diluted from 32.9% to 25.5% in the offering but remains Taysha’s largest shareholder, followed by PBM Capital (24.4%), UT Southwestern (5.9%) and Fidelity Management & Research (FMR) (5%)
Taysha secured $30m of seed funding co-led by Nolan Capital and PBM Capital in April 2020, adding $95m four months later in a round led by FMR described as series B stage.
GV, the early-stage investment arm of internet and conglomerate firm Alphabet, participated in the series B round along with unnamed funds managed by BlackRock, Invus, Casdin Capital, Franklin Templeton, Octagon Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Sands Capital, ArrowMark Partners, PBM Capital, Nolan Capital and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners.