Wave Life Sciences Sneaks Into the Market With IPO

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 5:17PM EST · Published Nov 11, 12:20PM EST

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Wave Life Sciences Sneaks Into the Market With IPO — © Thinkstock

Wave Life Sciences PTE Ltd. (NASDAQ: WVE) entered the market Wednesday morning in its initial public offering (IPO). Shares priced at $16, but actually entered the market at $17.05, which was right around the expected price range of $15 to $17.

The offering is for a total of 6.38 million shares, with an overallotment option for an additional 956,250. At the $16 price level the entire offering is valued at $117.38 million. This was upped from the original level of 5 million shares with an overallotment option for an additional 750,000.

The underwriters for the offering were Jefferies, Leerink Partners, JMP Securities and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. So we can expect some analyst calls in a few weeks, once the quiet period is over.

This is a preclinical biopharmaceutical company with an innovative and proprietary synthetic chemistry drug development platform used to design, develop and commercialize a broad pipeline of first-in-class or best-in-class nucleic acid therapeutic candidates. Nucleic acid therapeutics have the potential to address diseases that have been difficult to treat with small molecule drugs or biologics and have emerged as a large and promising class of drugs.

The company is initially developing nucleic acid therapeutics that target genetic defects to either reduce the expression of disease-promoting proteins or transform the production of dysfunctional mutant proteins into the production of functional proteins. The platform is driven by innovative and proprietary stereochemistry technology, enabling Wave Life to rationally design, optimize and manufacture stereopure nucleic acid therapeutics, which it believes possess drug properties that are superior to the stereoisomer mixtures of oligonucleotides currently on the market or in development by others.

Shares of Wave Life were last seen trading up 4% at $16.64, with the range on the day so far at $16.10 to $17.90. However, the IPO has not been especially active, with roughly 870,000 shares having moved so far on the day.

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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.