Health and Healthcare

Equillium Prepares for IPO

Thinkstock

Equillium has filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering. No pricing details were given in the filing, but the offering is valued up to $86.25 million. The company intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol EQ.

The underwriters for the offering are Jefferies, Leerink and Stifel.

This is a biotechnology company leveraging deep understanding of immunobiology to develop products for severe autoimmune and inflammatory, or immuno-inflammatory, disorders with high unmet medical need.

Its initial product candidate, EQ001 (itolizumab), is a clinical-stage, first-in-class monoclonal antibody that selectively targets the novel immune checkpoint receptor CD6. CD6 plays a central role in the modulation of effector T cells, or Teff cells. Activated Teff cells drive a number of immuno-inflammatory diseases across therapeutic areas, including transplant science, systemic autoimmunity, pulmonary, neurologic, gastrointestinal, renal, vascular, ophthalmic and dermatologic disorders.

As such, the firm believes EQ001 may have broad therapeutic utility in treating a large and diverse set of severe immuno-inflammatory diseases.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for a couple things:

  • Approximately $50.0 million to fund research and development of EQ001; and
  • The remainder for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including the additional costs associated with being a public company.

 

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.