Taysha Gene Therapies Raises $157 Million in IPO

Five months after launching with $30 million, Taysha Gene Therapies went public with an initial public offering, raising $157 million to advance a pipeline of AAV-based gene therapies to treat monogenic CNS diseases in both rare and large patient populations.

Taysha sold 7.9 million shares of common stock at $20 a share, the top of its proposed range, and will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “TSHA.”

Taysha has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.2 million additional shares of common stock at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Rare disease focused biotech companies have featured prominently among the 48 therapeutics companies completing IPOs in 2020 so far, accounting for 39.6 percent of completed IPOs and 30.6 percent of capital raised in 2020. Of the 19 rare disease focused biotechs that have completed IPOs so far this year, five of them, or 26.3 percent, are developing gene therapies. As a group, these five companies went public in upsized offerings at the top of their proposed offering range. They accounted for $1 billion in new capital, or 27.8 percent of the $3.6 billion raised by the 19 rare disease focused companies through IPOs.

Taysha Gene Therapies is led by former investors and executives from gene therapy pioneer AveXis. Armed with a collaboration with UT Southwestern’s Gene Therapy program and Department of Pediatrics, Taysha is advancing a pipeline of 17 AAV-based gene therapy product candidates, with exclusive options to acquire four additional programs across three distinct franchises, including neurodegenerative diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic forms of epilepsy.

The company expects to initiate a clinical study before the end of the year for its first gene-therapy candidate for GM2 Gangliosidosis, a rare inherited disorder that progressively destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Taysha’s approach is to combine the speed, scale, and expertise of the UT Southwestern Gene Therapy Program with the experience of a proven management team in the gene therapy space. In addition to developing an extensive pipeline of AAV gene therapies targeting monogenic CNS diseases, Taysha is developing a novel AAV capsid platform that utilizes machine learning, DNA shuffling and directed evolution to improve targeted delivery. The company is also developing an AAV redosing platform that facilitates redosing by subverting the humoral immune response through delivery to the vagus nerve.

Taysha’s TGTX-101, a gene replacement therapy for the rare disease GM2-Gangliosidosis, is expected to advance into clinical development later this year. In total, Taysha is planning to file four Initial New Drug (IND) applications by the end of 2021, including indications for SURF1 deficiency, SLC6A1 haplo-insufficiency and Rett syndrome.