Appellis Pharmaceuticals has filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No terms were given in the filing, but the offering is valued up to $86.5 million. The company intends to list on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol APLS.

The underwriters for the offering are Citigroup, Barclays and Leerink Partners.

This is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutic compounds for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The approach is centered on the inhibition of the complement system, which is a cascade of interacting proteins and is an integral component of the immune system.

The lead compounds are designed to broadly inhibit complement C3, the central protein in the complement cascade. Under conditions of excessive or uncontrolled activation, the complement system plays a key role in a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Appellis believes that by inhibiting the complement system at C3 it may effectively control these diseases. Additionally, the firm believes that C3 inhibition may potentially correct the underlying immunological dysfunction that characterizes many of these diseases, an approach it refers to as complement immunotherapy.

In the filing Appellis described its programs as:

We are developing our lead product candidates, APL-2 and APL-1, to treat paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, geographic atrophy, or GA, intermediate age-related macular degeneration, or intermediate AMD, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. In addition to our lead programs, we intend to combine our core expertise in C3 with our deep understanding of immunology and the role of the complement system in disease to build a pipeline of additional potential treatments. Specifically, we plan to develop APL-2 for the treatment of patients with refractory myasthenia gravis, or rMG, neuromyelitis optica, or NMO, and chronic kidney rejection, or CKR. We also intend to study APL-1 in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF. We are developing APL-2 for subcutaneous injection, which is an injection into the tissue under the skin, and for intravitreal injection, which is an injection into the eye. We are developing APL-1 for inhaled administration.

The company intends to use the proceeds from this offering to for clinical trials and to further develop its pipeline. The remainder will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

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