Consider that IPO window well and truly opened. The day after CG Oncology became the first biotech to join the Nasdaq in 2024, ArriVent BioPharma has now followed suit with its own upsized offering.
While CG Oncology managed to bring in $380 million in part by securing a share price above its own estimates, ArriVent landed squarely in the middle of its expected range of $17-$19 per share. Still, ArriVent ended up selling 9.7 million shares—above the 8.3 million it had planned for at the start of the week—meaning gross proceeds reached $175 million, above the previously expected $135.7 million.
That haul could go higher, should underwriters take up their 30-day offer to buy another 1.45 million shares. At the $18 IPO share price, that would bring in an additional $26.2 million.
The stock is due to begin trading on the Nasdaq this morning under the ticker “AVBP.” ArriVent’s leadership will likely be heartened by CG Oncology’s experience yesterday. The cancer-focused biotech saw its shares almost double in value on their first day of trading, starting Thursday at $19 and closing at $37.17.
Pennsylvania-based ArriVent is on a mission to bring China-developed drugs to Western markets via in-licensing deals. The biotech’s lead asset, furmonertinib, is being developed for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor received approval in China in 2021 to treat locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC.
In October, furmonertinib nabbed FDA breakthrough designation for previously untreated, locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.
ArriVent previously said that it plans on using about $50 million to $60 million of the IPO net proceeds to support the FDA approval submission and potential commercial activities for furmonertinib, assuming the ongoing phase 3 FURVENT trial is a success.
Up to $50 million could also be spent on activities into 2026 focused on developing furmonertinib for patients with other NSCLC mutations.
ArriVent and CG Oncology have been the first biotechs to list this year, but there is a growing queue of peers who have already announced their own plans for 2024—including Alto Neuroscience, gene-editing company Metagenomi and CAR-T developer Kyverna Therapeutics.