Lexeo Raises $100 Million in IPO

Rare Daily Staff

Lexeo Therapeutics, a clinical stage genetic medicine company developing gene therapies for genetically defined cardiovascular diseases and APOE4-associated Alzheimer’s disease, raised $100 million in an initial public offering.

Lexeo is the second rare disease focused biotech and the 17^th therapeutics drug developer to complete an IPO in 2023. The company priced its initial public offering of 9.1 million shares of common stock at $11.00 per share for gross proceeds of $100 million before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses.  In addition, Lexeo has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.4 million shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The shares are expected to begin trading on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “LXEO.”

Lexeo launched in 2021, put together by rare disease and gene therapy industry veterans from Spark Therapeutics, Amicus, and Pfizer, along with gene therapy pioneer Ronald Crystal, professor and chairman of Weill Cornell’s Department of Genetic Medicine and director of the Belfer Gene Therapy Core Facility.

The company’s lead gene therapy candidate, LX2006 for Friedreich’s ataxia cardiomyopathy, is currently being evaluated in a phase 1/2 clinical trial with a readout expected in the middle of 2024.

Lexeo’s lead Alzheimer’s disease candidate, LX1001, is being developed for the treatment of APOE4 homozygous patients with Alzheimer’s disease and is in an ongoing phase 1/2 trial. It expects to complete enrollment in the trial by the end of 2023 and report additional interim data from all cohorts in the second half of 2024.

Lexeo also expects to release interim data before the end of 2024 from the first cohort of its one-and-done treatment candidate for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy with PKP2 mutations, LX2020, for which clinical studies are expected to begin in December.