Pfenex, a biotech developing an alternative to Roche's Lucentis treatment for wet AMD, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering. Lucentis generates over $4.3 billion annually for Roche, which manufactures and sells the drug in the U.S., and Novartis (NYSE: NVS), which markets it outside the country. Pfenex is also developing candidates for other high-value protein therapeutics.
The San Diego, CA-based company was spun out of Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) in 2009 and booked $11 million in collaboration revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, 2014. Pfenex plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol PFNX and initially filed confidentially on May 5, 2014. William Blair and JMP Securities are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
