Two Biotechs Raise $247 Million to Advance Rare Disease Pipelines

Harmony Biosciences and Inhibrx completed upsized initial public offerings that raised a combined $247 million to advance their pipelines of experimental rare disease and cancer therapies.

Rare neurological disease-focused Harmony markets the narcolepsy drug pitolisant in the United States and is testing it as a treatment for several rare indications including cataplexy in adults and Prader Willi syndrome.

Harmony raised $128.4 million through an upsized initial public offering of 5.3 million shares of common stock at $24.00 per share. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 802,325 shares at the IPO price, less discounts and commissions. Shares of the company will begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “HRMY.”

Inhibrx uses diverse methods of protein engineering to develop a broad pipeline of novel biologic therapeutic candidates to treat cancer and rare diseases. The biotech’s INBRX-101 is an experimental Fc-fusion protein-based therapy in phase 1 studies for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a rare genetically defined respiratory disease characterized by progressive destruction of lung tissue.

Inhibrx raised $119 million in an upsized initial public offering of 7 million shares of common stock at $17.00 per share. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to 1 million additional shares of common stock at the IPO price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. Shares of the company will begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “INBX.”

So far in 2020, 17 companies developing rare disease therapies have gone public, raising $3.2 billion to advance their product candidates.