Werewolf Therapeutics, a US-based cancer treatment developer backed by healthcare provider UPMC and pharmaceutical firm Taiho, has raised $120m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.
The company had initially filed to issue 6.25 million shares and set a price range between $15 and $17, but later upped the number of shares in the offering to 7.5 million and priced them at $16.00 each. It floated last week and its shares closed at $16.26 yesterday, representing a market capitalisation of approximately $427m.
Werewolf is using protein engineering technology dubbed Predator to develop biotherapeutics intended to improve the immune system’s response to cancer. Life sciences investment firm MPM Capital seeded it with an undisclosed amount of funding in 2017.
The company plans to use about $111m of the IPO proceeds and its cash on hand to fund dose escalation and expansion trials for its solid tumour lead candidates, WTX-124 and WTX-330. It will also deploy $12.1m for the preclinical development of a third candidate, WTX-613.
Taiho’s corporate venturing arm, Taiho Ventures took part in Werewolf’s $72m series B round, in January 2021, which included UPMC Enterprises, a subsidiary of health system UPMC, closely affiliated with University of Pittsburgh.
The series B round was led by RA Capital and featured Adage Capital, Arkin Bio Ventures, CaaS Capital, DC Investment Partners, Deerfield Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Longwood Fund, MPM Capital, Soleus Capital and Sphera Healthcare.
Werewolf had already received $56m in a late 2019 series A round that was co-led by MPM Capital and Longwood Fund with participation from Arkin Bio Ventures, DC Investment Partners and UPMC Enterprises.
MPM Capital remains the largest Werewolf shareholder, with a stake diluted from 20.8% to 15.8%. Its other investors are UBS Oncology Impact Fund (8.8% post-IPO), RA Capital (8.6%), Taiho Ventures (6.7%), Deerfield (6.7%), Arkin Bio Ventures 2 (6.3%), Longwood Fund III (5.4%) and UPMC (4.2%).
Jefferies, SVB Leerink, Evercore Group and HC Wainwright are joint bookrunners for the IPO and have a 30-day option to purchase an additional 1.1 million shares, which would boost its size to almost $138m.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

Werewolf Therapeutics, a US-based cancer treatment developer backed by healthcare provider UPMC and pharmaceutical firm Taiho, has raised $120m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.

The company had initially filed to issue 6.25 million shares and set a price range between $15 and $17, but later upped the number of shares in the offering to 7.5 million and priced them at $16.00 each. It floated last week and its shares closed at $16.26 yesterday, representing a market capitalisation of approximately $427m.

Werewolf is using protein engineering technology dubbed Predator to develop biotherapeutics intended to improve the immune system’s response to cancer. Life sciences investment firm MPM Capital seeded it with an undisclosed amount of funding in 2017.

The company plans to use about $111m of the IPO proceeds and its cash on hand to fund dose escalation and expansion trials for its solid tumour lead candidates, WTX-124 and WTX-330. It will also deploy $12.1m for the preclinical development of a third candidate, WTX-613.

Taiho’s corporate venturing arm, Taiho Ventures took part in Werewolf’s $72m series B round, in January 2021, which included UPMC Enterprises, a subsidiary of health system UPMC.

The series B round was led by RA Capital and featured Adage Capital, Arkin Bio Ventures, CaaS Capital, DC Investment Partners, Deerfield Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Longwood Fund, MPM Capital, Soleus Capital and Sphera Healthcare.

Werewolf had already received $56m in a late 2019 series A round that was co-led by MPM Capital and Longwood Fund with participation from Arkin Bio Ventures, DC Investment Partners and UPMC Enterprises.

MPM Capital remains the largest Werewolf shareholder, with a stake diluted from 20.8% to 15.8%. Its other investors are UBS Oncology Impact Fund (8.8% post-IPO), RA Capital (8.6%), Taiho Ventures (6.7%), Deerfield (6.7%), Arkin Bio Ventures 2 (6.3%), Longwood Fund III (5.4%) and UPMC (4.2%).

Jefferies, SVB Leerink, Evercore Group and HC Wainwright are joint bookrunners for the IPO and have a 30-day option to purchase an additional 1.1 million shares, which would boost its size to almost $138m.