Clinical-stage cell therapy developer Artiva Biotherapeutics will seek about $116 million in net proceeds from its proposed initial public offering, according to an updated SEC document on Monday morning.
The San Diego biotech’s listing, which could come as early as this week, would give the startup more room to grow its early-stage pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapies for lupus, B cell malignancies, solid tumors and other blood cancers. As many cell therapy biotechs move into or pivot to autoimmune diseases, Artiva is positioning its work in systemic lupus erythematosus as its lead project, with a Phase 1/1b underway.
The GC Cell spinout, founded in 2019, plans to sell 8.7 million shares $ARTV between $14 and $16 apiece, according to the Monday morning filing.
Artiva had initially sought an IPO in the spring of 2021, at a time when public debuts were occurring regularly. Those high-flying days are far back in the rear-view mirror as few private biotechs have made the transition onto the Nasdaq or NYSE in recent years.
In November 2022, Artiva wound up officially pulling its original IPO ambitions so that it could unveil a partnership with Affimed that month. At the time, Artiva CEO Fred Aslan told Endpoints News the key reason for pumping the brakes on an IPO was to reveal the joint development, manufacturing and commercialization pact with its German partner.
The company then lost its partnership with Merck last fall, according to its IPO paperwork last month.
At the end of March, Artiva had about $62 million. It spent about $50 million on R&D in 2023 and about $11 million in the first quarter of 2024. Its main shareholders are GC LabCell, 5AM Ventures, venBio and RA Capital. Its last major fundraising disclosure was a $120 million Series B in February 2021, just a week before it confidentially filed for an IPO the first time.
Artiva’s planned IPO arrives at a moment of flux for the biotech industry. Private biotechs just reeled in the most amount of capital in a quarter since early 2022, but “the IPO market remains the lone holdout with deal volume trailing expectations as aftermarket performance remains a significant issue,” Raymond James bankers wrote in a biweekly industry update on Sunday.
If it follows through with the IPO, Artiva would join this year’s autoimmune entrants Alumis and Kyverna; neuroscience biotechs Rapport, Contineum and Alto; gene editor Metagenomi; metabolic biotech Fractyl Health; as well as cancer biotechs Boundless Bio, ArriVent and CG Oncology.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include more details from the SEC filing.