Juno, the Last IPO of 2014, Enters the Market With a Bang

By Chris Lange Published Dec 19, 11:15AM EST

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Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO) debuted on the market Friday morning and has made a big splash. The pricing for the offering was $24 per share, outside of the original range of $21 to $23 per share, on a total of 9.25 million shares, with an overallotment option for an additional 1.39 million shares.

The underwriters for the offering are Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Leerink Partners and Goldman Sachs.

Juno is a biopharmaceutical company focused on re-engaging the body’s immune system to treat cancer. The company was originally founded on the vision that the use of human cells as therapeutic entities will drive one of the next important phases in medicine. It is developing cell-based cancer immunotherapies based on a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and high-affinity T-cell receptor (TCR) technologies to genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.

In its research, Juno leverages CAR and TCR technologies to activate a patient’s own T cells so that they attack cancer cells. Through genetic engineering, a gene for a particular CAR or TCR construct is inserted into the T cell that enables it to better recognize cancer cells. The CAR technology directs T cells to recognize cancer cells based on the expression of specific proteins located on the cell surface, whereas TCR technology provides the T cells with a specific T-cell receptor to recognize protein fragments derived from either the surface or inside the cell.

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The following are most advanced product candidates in the company’s pipeline that leverage CAR technology:

JCAR015 has demonstrated in an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial a 91% complete remission rate in 22 evaluable adult patients. Phase 2 is planned to be initiated in mid-2015, exploring JCAR015 in adult r/r ALL that could support accelerated U.S. regulatory approval.
JCAR017 has demonstrated in the Phase 1 portion of an ongoing Phase 1/2 trial an 83% complete remission rate in six evaluable patients with pediatric r/r ALL. The company plans to initiate a multi-center Phase 1 trial exploring JCAR017 in 2015, with the potential to advance to a registration trial in 2016 that may support accelerated U.S. regulatory approval.
JCAR014 is in a Phase 1/2 trial in patients with B-cell malignancies, with the vast majority of patients treated to date having either r/r NHL or r/r ALL. Juno expects to report data from the Phase 1 portion of this trial before the end of 2014.

Despite pricing at $24 per share, Juno entered the market at $39.00 per share. In the first half of the trading day, shares were up nearly 60% from the pricing, at $38.35, moving nearly 9 million shares. The range on the day — so far — was $36.10 to $39.50.

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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.