alder-bioAlder BioPharmaceuticals had a fairly ho-hum first day on Wall Street today. The Bothell-based biotech company’s stock closed at $10.03 a share today, up three cents from its IPO price of $10. The company’s price fluctuated between $9.50 a share at its lowest point to $10.65 at its highest point.

Alder is the first company in Washington state to go public this year, and its performance today speaks to the rough market facing biotech companies that are looking to go public. The company’s initial share price of $10 was below the expected range of $13 to $15 a share. Cerulean Pharma and Aldeyra Pharmaceuticals, which both had offerings earlier this month, faced similar pricing disappointments.

Part of that may have to do with the company’s fiscal outlook: when Alder announced its IPO in March, it said that it had a sizeable accumulated deficit, and will continue to “to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.”

Still, Alder has a future ahead of itself in the pharmaceutical business: the company saw successful Phase 2b trials for clazakizumab, a rheumatoid arthritis drug that Alder has been developing as a part of a $1.35 billion partnership with Bristol-Meyers Squibb. 

Alder has joined a pantheon of Seattle companies that have successfully completed IPOs, including NanoString, a fellow biotech company that had its offering last year.

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