Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering (IPO). No terms were given in the filing, but the offering is valued up to $100 million, although this number is usually just a placeholder. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol CTMX.

The underwriters for the offering are Merrill Lynch, Jefferies, Cowen and Oppenheimer.

This is an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company is pioneering a novel class of antibody therapeutics based on its Probody technology platform. Cytomx is using its platform to create proprietary cancer immunotherapies against clinically-validated targets, as well as to develop first-in-class cancer therapeutics against novel targets.

In the filing the company said:

We believe that our Probody platform will allow us to improve the combined efficacy and safety profile, or therapeutic window, of monoclonal antibody modalities including cancer immunotherapies, antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and T-cell-recruiting bispecific antibodies. Our Probody therapeutics are designed to take advantage of unique conditions in the tumor microenvironment to enhance the tumor-targeting features of an antibody and reduce drug activity in healthy tissues. We are currently developing Probody therapeutics that address clinically-validated cancer targets in immuno-oncology, such as PD-L1, as well as novel targets, such as CD-166, that are difficult to drug and lead to concerns about damage to healthy tissues, or toxicities.

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Separately, the company is collaborating with strategic partners, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and ImmunoGen, to develop selected Probody therapeutics.

Cytomx also stated its risk in the filing:

Biopharmaceutical product development, particularly in the field of oncology, is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. We do not currently have any product candidates in clinical trials or approved for sale, and we continue to incur significant research and development and general and administrative expenses related to our operations. We are not profitable and have incurred losses in each year since our founding in 2008. Our net loss for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2014 was $15.1 million and $30.3 million, respectively. Our net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2015 was $12.0 million. As of June 30, 2015, we had an accumulated deficit of $92.6 million. We expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain that profitability in subsequent periods.

The company intends to use the proceeds from the offering to develop its Probody pipeline. The remainder of the net proceeds from this offering will be put toward working capital and other general corporate purposes.

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