PepGen Raises $108 Million in IPO to Advance Neuromuscular Disease Pipeline

PepGen, a company advancing the next generation of oligonucleotide therapies to treat severe neuromuscular and neurological diseases, priced an initial public offering of 9 million shares of common stock at $12.00 per share to raise $108 million.

Going public in a bear market, PepGen offered 1.8 million more shares than it had anticipated and priced below its targeted range of $13 to $15 per share.

In addition, the company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.35 million shares of common stock at the IPO price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The shares will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “PEPG.”

PepGen’s cell-penetrating peptide technology for oligonucleotide delivery was developed over more than a decade of research in the United Kingdom and arose from collaborations between the neuroscience laboratory of Matthew Wood at the University of Oxford and the peptide chemistry laboratory of Mike Gait at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

The technology uses next-generation cell-penetrating peptides conjugated to phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PPMOs) that are designed to correct genetic defects in diseases with high unmet medical need. PepGen says its proprietary PPMO technology will dramatically enhance delivery of oligonucleotides to key tissues, while also improving safety compared with competing therapies.

In preclinical studies, PepGen has shown that its Enhanced Delivery Oligonucleotide (EDO) platform can deliver oligonucleotide candidates efficiently, safely, and reliably to skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle, as well as to areas of the central nervous system, thereby allowing for lower doses and less toxicity.

PepGen is currently advancing two rare genetic neuromuscular disease programs: one for DMD patients treatable with an exon 51 skipping oligonucleotide and the other targeting myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). PGN-EDO51 for DMD recently entered a phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers, with topline data anticipated at the end of the year, and PGN-EDODM1 for DM1, which is entering clinical trials in early 2023. The company also has a pipeline of additional oligonucleotide candidates targeting neuromuscular, neurologic, and severe cardiac diseases.

Author: Rare Daily Staff