BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

IPO holding pattern?

Why deep inside support helped Editas, BeiGene go public

February 8, 2016 8:00 AM UTC

A heavy dose of built-in demand is at the root of the only two biotech IPOs completed so far this year. Editas Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) and BeiGene Ltd. (NASDAQ:BGNE) both priced their offerings within range late Tuesday and surged in the after-market.

Gene editing company Editas raised $94.4 million through the sale of 5.9 million shares at $16, valuing it at $571.2 million. The post-IPO valuation was the highest ever for a preclinical company. The company's platform is based on one of the sector's hottest fields - CRISPR-Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) genome editing...