By Aditi Tiwari and Prakhar Srivastava
June 18 (Reuters) - Kardigan's shares rose 31% above their initial public offering price on Thursday after the heart drug developer raised $400 million in an upsized U.S. initial public offering, signaling strong investor appetite for new biotech listings.
The Princeton, New Jersey-based company's shares opened at $16.25, above its IPO price of $16 per share, and were last up 22.3%.
The strong market debut underscores renewed investor appetite for biotech companies
with advanced clinical programs and promising drug pipelines as improving market conditions reopen the IPO window for the sector.
"We've seen the market recover lately, with proceeds already substantially ahead of last year's levels, but this is not a return to the 2020-2021 'free-for-all', when many companies were still at very early or pre-clinical stages," said IPOX Research Associate Lukas Muehlbauer.
The clinical-stage biotech Kardigan is developing precision medicines for cardiovascular diseases and is advancing three late-stage experimental therapies- danicamtiv, ataciguat and tonlamarsen.
"Going public gives us access to long-term investors that believe in our mission, and it gives us the capital to see it through for companies that are solving real problems like cardiovascular disease," CEO Tassos Gianakakos told Reuters in an interview.
"We'll have important data from all of those programs in the first half of next year that we believe will unlock a lot of value." Gianakakos said.
Gianakakos and Chief Medical Officer Jay Edelberg founded Kardigan after helping develop heart drug mavacamten at MyoKardia, which Bristol Myers Squibb acquired for $13 billion in 2020.
"Kardigan disclosing that it wouldn't have cash reserves to fund operations for at least 12 months – this is exactly why they are raising money now," Muehlbauer said, adding "still, investors may watch out for potential follow-on offerings as an overhang, particularly as the company said it may seek additional capital in favorable market conditions."
(Reporting by Aditi Tiwari and Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
