A company in the burgeoning field of epigenetics has raised about $5 million in debt financing, right on the heels of refiling for an initial public offering.
Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a late-stage Massachusetts biotech, postponed an IPO from June but, according to an August 28 filing, still plans to raise $60 million when it goes public. It’s offering 4.3 million shares at a price range of $13 to $15, which at the time would command a market value of $179 million, according to Renaissance Capital.
The company’s developing an epigenetic therapy for treatment-resistant cancers called entinostat. It was granted breakthrough therapy designation by the Food and Drug Administration, thanks to data from Phase IIB trials in metastatic breast cancer. It began Phase III trials in June, which are expected to be complete by mid-2017
The company is collaborating with the National Cancer Institute, and has several other Phase II and Phase I trials in breast cancer underway. Additionally, it’s testing the compound in patients with lung cancer. The company described its tech in the S-1 filing:
Entinostat is an oral, weekly or bi-weekly, selective histone deacetylase, or HDAC, inhibitor that has been well-tolerated in clinical trials to date. HDACs are a class of enzymes with a predominant role in regulating gene expression through a chemical modification to DNA-associated proteins known as histones. This chemical modification is part of a regulatory system that controls gene expression, known as epigenetics. When the function of these epigenetic enzymes is altered, gene expression is changed in ways that often leads to disease.
