Vor Biopharma, a preclinical biotech developing cell therapies for hematological diseases, raised $177 million by offering 9.8 million shares at $18, the high end of the range of $16 to $18. The company offered 1 million more shares than anticipated. At pricing, Vor Biopharma commands a fully diluted market value of $711 million.
The company's pipeline contains its lead engineered hematopoietic stem cell (eHSC) candidate, VOR33, and its companion therapeutic, VCAR33, a CAR-T therapy designed to target CD33. A T cell therapy using the same CAR construct as VCAR33 is currently in a Phase 1/2 trial for AML that is sponsored by the National Marrow Donor Program, with initial monotherapy proof-of-concept data expected in 2022. The company's IND application for VOR33 in patients with AML was accepted by the FDA in January 2021, and it intends to initiate a Phase 1/2a trial in the 1H21.
Vor Biopharma plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol VOR. Goldman Sachs, Evercore ISI, Barclays and Stifel acted as lead managers on the deal.
