A year after announcing that it received a $60 million Series A funding, San Francisco-based 89Bio went public Monday. It priced its share at $16 hoping to bring in $85 million into its coffers. But trading in the early afternoon showed that the stock had surged past the IPO price and was trading at more than $18 a share.
It is trading on the Nasdaq with the symbol ETNB.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
89Bio company is developing a drug called BIO89-100 that is in Phase I/Phase 2b development for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH. The drug, originally called TEV-47948, was acquired from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and is a long-acting glycopegylated fibroblast growth factor 21, or FGF21 analog, which is designed to prolong the half-life and optimize the biological activity of native FGF21. Last year, it’s $60 million funding round was led by OrbiMed’s Israeli and US divisions along with Menlo Park, California-based Longitude Capital. RA Capital Management and Pontifax also participated.
OrbiMed US and OrbiMed Israel founded 89Bio and while the company is based in San Francisco, it has R&D operations in Israel.
NASH is an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD that can potentially read to life-threatening cirrhosis. As its name suggests, it results not from alcohol consumption, but from being overweight or obese, having insulin resistance of Type 2 diabetes, high levels of lipids in the blood and metabolic syndromes, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases. According to an epidemiology study published last year, Asia has led the global rise in NAFLD, though the US follows closely behind, with prevalence rising from 15 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2010.
