Beigene Readies Itself for IPO

By Chris Lange Published Oct 19, 11:50AM EDT

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Beigene 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 $100 million. The company intends to list its American depositary shares (ADSs) on the Nasdaq under the symbol BGNE.

The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Cowen and Baird.

This is a globally focused biopharmaceutical company dedicated to becoming a leader in the discovery and development of innovative, molecularly targeted and immuno-oncology drugs for the treatment of cancer. Beigene believes the next generation of cancer treatment will utilize therapeutics both as monotherapy and in combination to attack multiple underlying mechanisms of cancer cell growth and survival.

In the filing the company said:

We further believe that discovery of next-generation cancer therapies requires new research tools. To that end, we have developed a proprietary cancer biology platform that addresses the importance of tumor-immune system interactions and the value of primary biopsies in developing new models to support our drug discovery effort. Our strategy is to advance a pipeline of drug candidates with the potential to be best-in-class monotherapies and also important components of multiple-agent combination regimens.

Over the past five years, using its cancer biology platform, Beigene has developed clinical-stage drug candidates that inhibit the important oncology targets Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) RAF dimer protein complex and PARP family of proteins, and an immuno-oncology agent that inhibits the immune checkpoint protein receptor PD-1.

The PD-1 drug candidate is currently in a dose-escalation trial in Australia and New Zealand. As of October 12, 2015, four clinical-stage drug candidates have been dosed in a total of 202 patients. Beigene has an effective Investigational New Drug Application for its BTK inhibitor with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have received approval of its Clinical Trial Application for the RAF dimer inhibitor from the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).

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The research operations are in China, which the company believes confers several advantages, including access to a deep scientific talent pool and proximity to extensive preclinical study and clinical trial resources through collaborations with leading cancer hospitals in China.

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

About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.