AbCellera Rockets 195%, 4D Molecular Up 76% as Flurry of Health-Care IPOs Begin Trading
Four health-care companies made their trading debuts on Nasdaq today: Certara, AbCellera Biologics, 4D Molecular Therapeutics, and Vivos Therapeutics.
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The red-hot market for IPOs, which has delivered huge deals from Airbnb and DoorDash this week, isn’t done yet. AbCellera Biologics, one of four health-care companies that went public Friday, saw its shares soar nearly 260% in its debut.
The companies opening for trading share some common qualities. All four increased the size of their deals, all are trading on the Nasdaq, and three of the four priced above their expected ranges.
Certara (CERT) began trading, with shares rising as much as 72%. Vivos Therapeutics (VVOS) stock soared as much as 140%.
AbCellera’s stock (ticker: ABCL) opened at $61, more than triple its $20 IPO price. Shares hit a high of $71.91 and closed at $58.90, up 194.5%.
The strong performance came after AbCellera Biologics collected $483 million late Thursday. The company sold 24.2 million shares at $20 each, up from the 23 million at $14 to $17 it was expected to sell.
AbCellera isn’t a biotech, but it provides an artificial-intelligence-powered R&D platform that helps speed up the drug discovery process. The company, which is backed by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal Holdings (PYPL) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR), is also profitable. AbCellera reported $1.9 million in income for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $570,000 for the period a year ago.
Credit Suisse, Stifel, Berenberg, SVB Leerink, and BMO Capital Markets were the lead underwriters.
4D Molecular Therapeutics (FDMT) shares jumped as much as 95%. The stock opened at $40, hit a high of $45, and closed at $40.50, up 76.1%.
4D Molecular delivered its soaring debut after collecting $193.2 million. Late Thursday, the company sold 8.4 million shares at $23 each. 4D initially offered to sell 4,761,904 shares at $20 to $22, which was increased Thursday to 7 million shares at $22 to $23. Lead underwriters on the deal were Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, and Evercore ISI.
4D is developing gene therapies for diseases in three areas: ophthalmology, cardiology, and pulmonology. The biotech isn’t profitable, reporting a loss of $36.1 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $33.2 million for the period in 2019, a prospectus said.
Write to Luisa Beltran at [email protected]
