Verve Therapeutics, a preclinical biotech developing single-course gene editing therapies for cardiovascular disease, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.
Verve is advancing a pipeline of single-course in vivo gene editing programs, each designed to mimic natural disease resistance mutations and turn off specific genes in order to lower blood lipids. Its initial programs are being developed for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia. Its lead candidate, VERVE-101, is designed to be a single-course gene editing treatment that permanently turns off the PCSK9 gene in the liver. The company has initiated IND-enabling studies for VERVE-101 and intends to submit an IND in 2022.
The Cambridge, MA-based company was founded in 2018 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol VERV. J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Guggenheim Securities, and William Blair are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
