TABLE: 2014 IPO values mixed at mid-year

Going public isn't easy, even in a market that's receptive to biotechnology initial public offerings, but 41 drug developers made the leap in the US during the first half of 2014 and raised $2.6bn.

Four more companies entered the public market in the first six months of this year than during all of 2013 when 37 biopharma firms completed IPOs (scripintelligence.com, 27 January and 3 February 2014). And a majority of this year's newly-public drug developers were trading above their IPO values by mid-2014. The average post-IPO return was 26.1% as of 30 June, but values rose as high as 127% for Vital Therapies and fell by as much 49.3% for NephroGenex.

One of the year's most successful first-time offerings was completed by Kite Pharma, which priced its offering at $17 per share and saw its stock jump 70.9% above the IPO value to close at $29 by the end of its first day of trading on 20 June (scripintelligence.com, 22 June 2014).

"We explored internally with the board of directors and management all of the options that were available to us, both private and public financings," Kite chairman, president and CEO Arie Belldegrun told Scrip.

"We found that in order to enhance not only one or two programs, but multiple programs – in order to bring them to the market with the shortest path – we would have to go raise money from the public," Dr Belldegrun said.

It helps to be in a hot biotech space like Kite, which is developing personalized T-cell therapies for cancer patients. The Santa Monica, California-based company plans to have its first approved immunotherapy by 2017.

Timing is important in IPOs too, as the liver disease specialist Vital Therapies found out. The San Diego-based company tried to go public in November and again in March when drug developer stocks were briefly out of favor.

Vital Therapies eventually took its offering to market on 16 April at $12 per share, and its $27.24 stock value on 30 June represented the highest post-IPO return of any biotech firm that went public during the first half of this year (scripintelligence.com, 21 April 2014).

"It probably took simply a passage of time to give investors some comfort that our price would be stable over time and hold up," Vital Therapies chief business officer and executive vice president Duane Nash told Scrip.

The company's ELAD system is an extracorporeal bio-artificial liver support system that delivers human liver-derived cells to help a patient's liver regenerate to a healthy state or stabilize until they're able to receive a liver transplant. The first set of Phase III data in alcohol-induced liver decompensation (AILD) is expected in the first half of 2015.

Kite Pharma has two chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies in the clinic targeting CD-19 in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and EGFRvIII in glioblastoma. Both CAR therapies are in Phase Ib/IIa clinical trials conducted by the surgery branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).

"We promised to our investors that they would see at least one new indication each year. We hope to exceed these expectations," Dr Belldegrun said.

* Last revised price range

Company (in descending order of file date)	IPO date	Amount raised	IPO range *	IPO price	Stock as of 6/30	% Change vs IPO
1) Amphastar Pharmaceuticals	6/25	$32.5m	$10-12	$7	$10.01	43%
2) Ardelyx	6/19	60m	13-15	14	15.97	14.1%
3) Kite Pharma	6/19	127.5m	15-16	17	28.92	70.1%
4) ZS Pharma	6/17	107m	15-17	18	28.75	59.7%
5) Zafgen	6/18	96m	14-16	16	19.78	23.6%
6) Minerva Neurosciences	6/30	32.7m	6	6	NA	NA
7) Alder Biopharmaceuticals	5/8	80m	13-15	10	20.07	100.7%
8) Agile Therapeutics	5/22	55m	6	6	8.72	45.3%
9) Cerulean Pharma	4/10	59.5m	11-13	7	5.80	-17.1%
10) Adamas Pharmaceuticals	4/9	48m	16-18	16	18.28	14.3%
11) Mediwound	3/20	70m	14-16	14	11.38	-18.7%
12) Corium International	4/3	52m	10-12	8	7.77	-2.9%
13) Ignyta	3/13	48m	9.10	9.15	9.09	-0.7%
14) Scynexis	5/2	62m	10	10	8.02	-19.8%
15) Radius Health	6/5	52m	8	8	13	62.5%
16) Versartis	3/21	126m	19-21	21	28.04	33.5%
17) Galmed Pharmaceuticals	3/13	38.3m	12-14	13.50	9.74	-27.9%
18) Dipexium	3/13	33m	12-14	12	9.70	-19.2%
19) Aquinox Pharmaceuticals	3/6	46.2m	10-12	11	9.43	-14.3%
20) Achaogen	3/12	72m	12-14	12	13.96	16.3%
21) Concert Pharmaceuticals	2/13	84m	12-14	14	10.10	-27.9%
22) Applied Genetic Technologies Corp	3/26	50m	13-15	12	23.10	92.5%
23) Flexion Therapeutics	2/11	65m	12-14	13	13.48	3.7%
24) Aldeyra Therapeutics	5/2	12m	10-12	8	6.56	-18%
25) UniQure	2/5	91.8m	13-15	17	13.59	-20.1%
26) Revance Therapeutics	2/6	96m	14-16	16	34	112.5%
27) Dicerna Pharmaceuticals	1/29	90m	14	15	22.57	50.5%
28) Argos Therapeutics	2/7	45m	13-15	8	8.03	0.4%
29) Eleven Biotherapeutics	2/6	50m	13-5	10	13.18	31.8%
30) NephroGenex	2/10	37.2m	12-14	12	6.08	-49.3%
31) Genocea Biosciences	2/5	66m	12-14	12	18.75	56.3%
32) Auspex Pharmaceuticals	2/5	84m	10-12	12	22.27	85.6%
33) Eagle Pharmaceuticals	2/12	50.3m	14-16	15	14.33	-4.5%
34) Ultragenyx	1/30	121m	19-20	21	44.89	113.8%
35) Cara Therapeutics	1/30	55m	11-13	11	17.02	54.7%
36) Recro Pharma	3/7	30m	10-12	8	8.01	0.1%
37) Egalet	2/6	50.4m	11-13	12	13.12	9.3%
38) Vital Therapies	4/16	54m	13-15	12	27.24	127%
39) Celladon	1/29	44m	8	8	16.02	100.3%
40) Trevena	1/10	64.8m	7	7	5.65	-19.3%
41) Ruthigen	3/21	19.2m	12-14	7.25	5.99	-17.4%