California genetic testmaker Natera just upped its IPO target from $100 million to $175 million and begins trading today, opening at $18 per share. Its ticker symbol on the Nasdaq is “NTRA.”
The company’s lead product is its Panorama test. Launched in 2013, it screens for fetal abnormalities, including Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome and Turner syndrome, as well as severe organ abnormalities and fetal viability. It can be performed as early as nine weeks into a pregnancy, Natera says.
This story will be updated at the close of trading Thursday.
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- The company’s revenues grew from $55.2 million in 2013 to $159.3 million in 2014 — quite the increase. This comes largely from sales of the Panorama test – in the first three months of 2015 alone, it sold more than 55,000 of these tests.
- This IPO comes right on the heels of an April Series F round of $55.5 million – during which time it announced it’d be pivoting into the realm of precision medicine. The majority of Natera’s revenues come from its noninvasive prenatal testing segment, but it’s upping its R&D and will be entering other fields of genetic testing in the future, the company says.
- Natera relies on Illumina sequencing equipment – but this could pose a problem for the company. Illumina acquired Verinata Health in 2013 – which is Natera’s direct competitor in the noninvasive prenatal testing market. Its working relationship with Illumina could be tested by this rivalry.
- Natera is currently involved in patent litigation with Sequenom, another San Diego-based competitor. Natera’s claiming that it isn’t infringing on Sequenom’s NIPT diagnostics IP – but should the company lose the suit, it could lose a lot of money, as well. Such patent infringement cases are possible from all competitors, which includes Roche’s Ariosa Diagnostics and of course Illumina’s Verinata Health.
- About 79 percent of the stock is already accounted for by previous investors; this stock offering gives 21 percent of Natera’s stock to new investors. Natera’s directors and C-suite will own about 34.3 percent of capital stock at the completion of the offering.