When a raging bull market dies and turns into a bear market with a deep recession in less than 45 days, things are not normal. The same is true when the stock market recovers about two-thirds of its losses in 5 weeks. It has been a wild ride in 2020 and most investment banking firms have had very little to show in the way of initial public offerings. Well, it may be the case that IPO’s are starting to make a comeback.

Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: LYRA) managed to debut with its IPO on Friday. It was not exactly a huge offering, but it may be a start. Lyra’s 3.5 million share offering priced at $16.00 per share. That represents an offering of just $56 million prior to underwriting fees and expenses.

BofA Securities, Jefferies and William Blair were listed as the joint book-running managers for this IPO. BTIG was a co-manager for the offering. As with most IPO’s, Lyra has granted its underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 525,000 shares of its common stock at the same $16.00 per share.

Again, a $56 million IPO is not a huge underwriting. Lyra still managed to price at the top of its $14 to $16 indicated price range.

Lyra is focused on a new therapeutic approach to treating ear, nose and throat (ENT) diseases that impact the lives of millions of people. Its lead candidate LYR-210 is currently in Phase II clinical development for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis, an inflammatory disease of the nasal passages. According to the company:

LYR-210 is an anti-inflammatory implantable drug matrix based on our XTreo platform that is designed to consistently and locally elute mometasone furoate to the inflamed mucosal tissue for up to six months in surgically-naïve CRS patients who fail medical management…

Inflammation subsides as anti-inflammatory medicine is continually released directly to tissues. The mesh scaffold continuously expands to stay in place as inflammation recedes, for months of treatment. Nasal congestion and other CRS symptoms improve.

Lyra Therapeutics stock price was up just over 31% at $21.00 with just over 1 million shares trading hands as of 11:20 Eastern Time on Friday.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

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