Boundless Bio, a Bayer-backed cancer biotech, seeks an IPO
07 Mar 2024
IPO
Boundless Bio, an oncology startup backed by Bayer and Arch Venture Partners, on Wednesday became the first biotechnology company to file for an initial public offering since late January.
The San Diego biotech, which has raised $254 million across three private fundraising rounds, aims to use the proceeds to advance a pipeline of medicines for tough-to-treat tumors.
Boundless’ drugs zero in on tiny circles of genetic material, known as extrachromosomal DNA or ecDNA, harboring genes that can drive cancer. Cancer cells use ecDNA to express these destructive genes, grow and develop resistance to other drugs. The company estimates these so-called oncogenic amplifications occur in more than 14% of cancer patients.
The biotech has developed a technology, dubbed Spyglass, to seek out vulnerabilities in the cells carrying ecDNA. It then designs small molecules that can kill those cells. One of its prospects blocks an enzyme involved in the replication of ecDNA, while another inhibits an enzyme implicated in their repair after damage. Both are in early-stage testing, with results expected later this year and early next.
Boundless has also developed a diagnostic test to identify patients most likely to benefit from its therapies.
Should it go public, Boundless will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under “BOLD,” the ticker symbol last held by gene therapy developer Audentes Therapeutics.
Boundless’ filing is the first from a biotech since brain drug developer Aprinoia Therapeutics outlined IPO plans on Jan. 26. But it comes at a time of early optimism for biotech IPOs, as eight drugmakers have already raised $1.2 billion combined in 2024, the sector’s fastest start in three years. There’s a glut of biotechs waiting to follow, more “than we’ve ever had,” Silicon Valley Bank managing director Kale Frank recently told BioPharma Dive.
Before it revealed IPO plans, for instance, Boundless got the support of multiple “crossover” investors that support private as well as public companies. Crossover financing rounds are often a precursor to an IPO.
Still, most of the biotechs to successfully go public of late have been more advanced than Boundless. More than half the 28 IPOs since the start of 2023 — and nine of the largest 10 offerings — have involved companies with drugs in Phase 2 testing or later, according to BioPharma Dive data.
By comparison, only six biotechs in Phase 1 have priced since then, raising an average of about $63 million.
Boundless had about $121 million in cash on hand at the end of 2023. Arch is its largest investor, holding a roughly 16% stake. Bayer owns about 9% of the company, according to its IPO filing.
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