Oxford spinout Vaccitech, which developed the technology underlying the university’s covid vaccine, has filed for an offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.
Vaccitech, a UK-based developer of vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer spun out of University of Oxford, filed for an initial public offering in the US on Friday.
Financial terms have not yet been set and Vaccitech has used a placeholder $100m target in its draft prospectus. The spinout is looking to list on the Nasdaq Global Market and is seeking a valuation of around $700m, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Founded in 2016, Vaccitech originally focused on a universal flu vaccine but came to prominence when its technology was used to develop AZD1222, the vaccine for covid-19 co-developed by the university’s Jenner Institute and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
The spinout’s pipeline now also includes programmes targeting chronic hepatitis B infection, persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus infection and prostate cancer. Vaccitech will use proceeds from its planned offering to advance all three of these assets.
The money will also allow Vaccitech to drive the development of a therapy for non-small-cell lung carcinoma, and preventative vaccines for shingles and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (commonly known as Mers).
The remaining capital has been allocated to further platform development and general corporate purposes.
Vaccitech completed a $168m series B round last month backed by university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) and Future Planet Capital, a venture capital firm focused on university startups and spinouts.
M&G Investment Management, a division of impact investment manager M&G, led the series B round, which also attracted internet company Tencent, biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and unnamed new and existing backers.
Vaccitech received $33.9m in a series A round co-led by OSI, technology conglomerate Alphabet’s GV unit and Sequoia China in 2018. The series A round also included Neptune Ventures.
The series A was reported as being worth $27.1m at the time, but Vaccitech revealed the updated figure in its draft prospectus.
OSI had already contributed to a $14.5m seed round in 2016, when Invesco, Landsdowne and Woodford Investment Management also took part.
OSI is the largest shareholder ahead of the offering, with a 29.5% stake. M&G, through Prudential Credit Opportunities, holds 12.8%, followed by GV (6.1%), Tencent (5.1%) and Sequoia Capital China (5.1%).
Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Barclays Capital, William Blair and HC Wainwright are acting as underwriters.
