The IPO Buzz: Upstream Bio Files Plans for $100 Million IPO

Upstream Bio (UPB Proposed), a Phase 2 clinical biotech focused on severe respiratory disease, filed plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO, according to its S-1 filing on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Upstream Bio said it intends to list its stock on the NASDAQ.

Upstream Bio’s S-1 filing was disclosed late Wednesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark fed funds rate by a half percentage point – or 50 basis points – to a range between 4.75 percent and 5.0 percent. It was the Fed’s first rate cut since 2020.

J.P.Morgan, TD Cowen, Piper Sandler and William Blair are the joint book-runners of Upstream Bio’s IPO.

Upstream Bio is developing its leading drug candidate, verekitug, a monoclonal antibody to target and inhibit the thymic stromal lymphopoietin receptor, a cytokine that is a clinically validated driver of inflammatory response, according to the prospectus.

Upstream Bio is evaluating verekitug, its leading drug candidate, in Phase 2 clinical trials to treat severe asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. The biotech also plans to evaluate verekitug in a Phase 2 trial to treat COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Upstream Bio said it expects “to dose the first COPD patient in the second half of 2025,” according to the prospectus.

The biotech, founded in 2021, is based in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts.

Upstream Bio is not profitable, which is typical for a clinical biotech when it goes public. But it does have collaboration revenue. Upstream Bio reported that it had $2.22 million in collaboration revenue for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024, when it had a net loss of $40.51 million, according to the prospectus.

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