Seattle has seen a strong string of IPOs in the past few years — from Zillow to Tableau to Zulily. Now, a Seattle biotechnology company is hoping to make its mark.
Bothell-based Alder BioPharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs to treat migraines and arthritis, has filed to raise up to $115 million in an IPO on Nasdaq. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ALDR.
“We have developed a proprietary antibody platform designed to select antibodies that have the potential to maximize efficacy as well as speed of onset and durability of therapeutic response,” the company wrote in the filing. “In addition, we believe our ability to efficiently manufacture antibodies using our yeast-based manufacturing technology, MabXpress, allows us to target diseases that traditionally have not been addressed by antibodies.”
Like many biotech companies, Alder is losing buckets of money. It has compiled an accumulated deficit of $145.8 million since it was founded in 2002, and the company says that it will continue “to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.” The company posted a net loss of $20 million last year after pulling in revenues of $18.8 million, though it has yet to generate any product revenues to date. It had $23 million in cash and cash equivalents in the bank at the end of 2013.
Sevin Rosen is Alder BioPharma’s biggest backer, owning 23 percent of shares. That’s followed by Ventures West at 14 percent, and Novo A/S at 12 percent. It has raised $114 million to date, and also pulled in $134 million in research and development payments. In 2009, the company inked an alliance with Bristol Myers Squibb, one valued at the time at more than $1 billion.
The 77-person company is led by 59-year-old Randall Schatzman, a co-founder of the company who formerly served as VP of Operations at Celltech. If successful, Alder BioPharma would join NanoString Technologies as another Seattle area life sciences company that last year completed an IPO.
You can see the full filing here.
