Contineum Therapeutics has lowered its IPO expectations as the Johnson & Johnson-partnered biotech prepares to make the jump to the public markets this morning Friday, April 5.
The San Diego-based company set out plans earlier this week to sell 8.8 million shares priced between $16 and $18 apiece. Assuming that the final price fell in the middle of this range, Contineum had been estimating net proceeds of $136.6 million.
However, the biotech revealed yesterday evening that not only was it pricing its shares at the bottom end of that range—$16 apiece—but the number of shares on offer had dropped almost 2 million to 6.87 million.
Still, even this more modest offering is set to bring in gross proceeds of $110 million. That amount could swell by an additional $16.5 million if underwriters take up their 30-day option to buy 1.03 million shares at the same price.
The company’s stock is set to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market this morning under the ticker “CTNM.” The biotech’s leadership will be hoping they receive the warm welcome experienced by most of their peers that have also taken the IPO plunge this year.
Contineum’s most recent predecessor, Boundless Bio, hasn’t been so lucky. After launching at $16 per share for its $100 million IPO last week, the precision oncology company has seen its stock lose almost a fifth of its value to close at $13 yesterday.
Contineum, a biotech previously called Pipeline Therapeutics, plans to use part of its IPO haul to fund phase 1b and 2 trials of its lead drug candidate in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). The molecule, PIPE-791, is designed to inhibit LPA1, a receptor studies suggest may drive scarring in IPF and promote neuroinflammation and limit remyelination in MS.
The biotech has also earmarked a chunk of today’s proceeds for a phase 2 trial of PIPE-307, the drug candidate covered by the J&J agreement, in relapsing-remitting MS. The terms of the J&J deal require Contineum to run a phase 2 trial in the indication. Enrollment in the study began in November.
Contineum had run up an accumulated deficit of $75 million pursuing remyelination and other projects by the end of last year. The spending left the biotech with $125 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities from its private financing rounds, which include an $80 million series C it closed in 2021.