Visterra Gears Up for IPO

Visterra has registered an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No pricing details were given in the filing yet again. The company intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol VIST.

The underwriters for the offering are Leerink Partners, Stifel, Needham and Wedbush PacGrow.

This is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on applying its novel Hierotope platform to identify unique disease targets and to design and engineer precision antibody-based biological medicines for infectious and non-infectious diseases.

The company believes that its platform will enable it to address the significant unmet need for effective therapies to prevent and treat infectious diseases caused by organisms that have a high degree of diversity among strains, frequent mutations and a high prevalence of treatment resistance. The platform also enables it to design and engineer antibody-based biological product candidates for the treatment of non-infectious diseases that are not being adequately addressed with conventional treatment approaches.

[nativounit]

Visterra believes its platform will enable the advancement of one product candidate each year to be ready for submission of an investigational new drug application (IND).

The first and most advanced product candidate, VIS410, is a monoclonal antibody (mAb) that Visterra is developing for the treatment of hospitalized patients with influenza A, regardless of the viral strain. For VIS410, the company plans to initiate a global Phase 2a clinical trial in ambulatory patients diagnosed with influenza A by the end of 2016, and a Phase 2b clinical trial in hospitalized patients diagnosed with influenza A in the first half of 2017.

The second product candidate, VIS513, is a mAb for the treatment of dengue. The development of VIS513 is being advanced through our strategic relationship with the Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) in select territories. Under this collaboration, Visterra expects SIIPL will initiate Phase 1 clinical trials of VIS513 by the end of 2017.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to develop its pipeline. The remainder will go to fund new and ongoing research activities, including the continued expansion of its Hierotope platform, and for working capital, debt service and other general corporate purposes.

[wallst_email_signup]

By some metrics, 2016 has been a dismal year for IPOs. Still, the market has improved and we have featured the 18 biggest companies that may IPO in 2017.