LB Pharmaceuticals’ decision to break cover and go public seems to have paid off, with the company bumping up the number of shares on offer for its Nasdaq listing this morning.
The CNS-focused biotech is now offering 19 million shares for its IPO, above the 16.7 million shares the company had suggested earlier this week. With the shares priced at $15 apiece, it means that LB is now eyeing $285 million in gross proceeds from the offering, compared to $228.5 million in net proceeds suggested Monday.
The final haul could increase by about $42.7 million if underwriters take up their 30-day option to buy an additional 2.85 million shares for the same price.
The company’s stock is due to start trading on the Nasdaq this morning under the ticker “LBRX,” with the biotech having already earmarked the proceeds to advance its oral schizophrenia candidate LB-102.
LB-102 is a modified version of amisulpride, a dopamine inhibitor developed in the 1980s and marketed by Sanofi as Solian outside the U.S. In January, LB Pharma unveiled top-line data from a phase 2 study showing its candidate was linked to statistically significant changes on a symptom scale after four weeks of treatment.
LB Pharma said earlier this week that it expects to spend $133 million of IPO profits on a phase 3 study of LB-102 in schizophrenia, while about $25 million will be used to support a phase 2 trial in bipolar disorder. The rest will be allotted to “general corporate purposes.”
Along with its existing cash, the proceeds should be enough to fund operations through the first quarter of 2028, the company said in a Sept. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
LB Pharma has previously raised funding from Deep Track Capital, TCG Crossover, Vida Ventures and Pontifax. It is now operating under a new CEO in Heather Turner, the former chief at Roche-acquired Carmot Therapeutics. Recent efforts to stretch the company’s cash runway include a layoff round in May that saw the departure of its chief financial officer and chief scientific officer.
Having entered July with only $14 million left in the bank, LB decided to end a drought of biotech IPOs that has lasted since February by plunging into the public markets.