May 1 Quick Takes: Acelyrin could be NASDAQ’s biggest biotech IPO in two years

If Acelyrin Inc. sells its proposed 20.6 million shares at the $17 mid-point of the $16-$18 price range in its planned IPO, the immunology start-up would raise $350.2 million, the largest IPO for a biotech on NASDAQ since Exscientia plc (NASDAQ:EXAI) debuted on the exchange in September 2021. A deal at those terms would value Acelyrin at $1.4 billion. Acelyrin’s lead program is izokibep, a small, injectable protein that inhibits IL-17A and is one tenth the size of a mAb; it has reached Phase III testing in hidradenitis suppurativa, axial spondyloarthritis and uveitis. Acelyrin’s top shareholders include the AyurMaya affiliate of Matrix Capital Management, Westlake Village BioPartners, Opaleye, OrbiMed Advisors and Citadel. The offering could price as early as this week.

Initial Therapeutics Inc., which is developing small molecules that interrupt ribosomal translation of well-validated protein targets while they are still linear nascent peptide chains, emerged from stealth with $75 million in series A funding from founding investor Apple Tree Partners (ATP). The company’s selective termination of protein synthesis (STOPS) platform incorporates ribosomal assays based on structural biology work from the University of California Berkeley lab of co-founder Jamie Cate, and microfluidics-based high throughput screening technology from the University of California Irvine lab of Brian Paegel; a third co-founder is KRAS-targeting pioneer and UC Berkeley professor Kevan Shokat...