Good Day for Biotech with a Strong Appetite for Two IPOs in A Choppy Market
Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT) was up 29.33% to $19.40 on a public offering of 5M shares at $15 raising $75M. The Company is developing clinical stage therapeutics to treat chronic liver diseases. BofA MerrillLynch is acting as sole book running manager with BMO Capital Markets as lead manager. The Company has three FXR agonist compounds in various clinical stages including primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and portal hypertension.
Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (KYTH) was up 23.69% to $19.79 on an upsized 4.4M public offering at $16 raising over $70M. JPMorgan Securities LLC and Goldman Sachs and Co. were co-book running managers with Leerink Swann LLC as co-manager. Kythera is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical Company focused in aesthetic medicine with a Phase 3 injectable product candidate ATX-101 for reduction of submental fat which presents the “double chin” effect.Other research programs are focused in hair and fat biology as well as pigment modulation. The Chief Medical Officer is Patricia Walker M.D, Ph.D. formerly of Allergan Medical (AGN) and was involved in key product approvals in aesthetic medicine such as Botox (R) and Tazorac (R). Kythera is based in Los Angeles, CA .
Biotech Stocks Find Support Today
Biotech ETFs (IBB, XBI) are down about 2.75% over the past five days compared to S&P down 1.95% and the NASDAQ Composite down 3.18%.The PowerShares QQQ Trust is down 3.8% over this period due to heavy weighting of AAPL down 5.8% over five days.
The Rayno Life Science Portfolio has been resilient with recent strength in Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (CSII), Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST), Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Illumina Inc. (ILMN).