BeiGene Explodes Into the Market

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 1:41PM EST · Published Feb 3, 11:55AM EST

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BeiGene Explodes Into the Market — © Thinkstock

BeiGene Ltd. (NASDAQ: BGNE) entered the market with a bang on Wednesday in its initial public offering (IPO). The company priced its IPO at the high end of its range at $24 per share, for each of its 6.6 million shares in the offering. This pricing is very impressive considering the lack of demand for IPOs in the new year so far.

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

This globally focused biopharmaceutical company is dedicated to becoming a leader in the discovery and development of innovative, molecularly targeted and immuno-oncology drugs for the treatment of cancer. It 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. BeiGene further believes that discovery of next-generation cancer therapies requires new research tools.

The company’s 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.
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At the end of November, BeiGene’s four clinical-stage drug candidates have been dosed in a total of 265 patients. It has Investigational New Drug Applications in effect for BTK and PD-1 inhibitors with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and has received approval of its Clinical Trial Application for its RAF dimer inhibitor from the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).

The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to further develop its pipeline. Also it may use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition or licensing, as the case may be, of additional technologies, other assets or businesses, or for other strategic investments or opportunities. The remainder will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Shares of BeiGene were trading up 16.5% at $27.97 Wednesday morning, with the range on the day as $27.05 to $29.49. Despite shares originally pricing at $24 per share, they entered the market at $27.97.

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.