Aardvark Therapeutics, a biotech looking to address hunger rather than appetite for metabolic diseases, will go public on Thursday with a $94 million debut on the Nasdaq.
The San Diego-based biotech joins fellow obesity drug developer Metsera in going public this year, as well as cystic fibrosis company Sionna Therapeutics and kidney disease startup Maze Therapeutics. Ascentage Pharma, meanwhile, dual-listed.
Eight-year-old Aardvark will sell 5.88 million shares
$AARD
at $16 apiece, the low end of the range it
outlined last week
.
Industry insiders will keep an eye on the biotech’s first day of trading. Metsera and Sionna popped in their debuts, whereas Maze struggled to maintain its opening price.
Aardvark’s debut could provide more fodder for investors and boardrooms of late-stage private biotechs looking to make the leap onto the public markets. IPO filings are expected to slow down for the next few weeks as companies do their year-end audits and get all the proper documentation together, but industry insiders are waiting for more IPO hopefuls to arrive later this spring.
The company isn’t in need of immediate cash, having ended September with $82.3 million in cash and investments. But with a Phase 3 underway and two Phase 2 trial starts planned for the second half of this year, it’ll likely quickly ramp up R&D spending.
Aardvark’s late-stage trial is testing an oral TAS2R agonist called ARD-101 for Prader-Willi syndrome-associated hyperphagia. Topline data are expected early next year, meaning Aardvark will likely go a few quarters on the public markets before delivering critical clinical data to investors and analysts.
A Phase 2 of ARD-101 is coming up soon in hypothalamic obesity-associated hyperphagia. Aardvark also has mid-stage plans for a combination of another TAS2R agonist, dubbed ARD-201, and a DPP-4 inhibitor for obesity.
Rather than going after appetite suppression like many of the obesity biotechs, Aardvark is honing in on hunger. “Most folks will conceptualize appetite and hunger as, ‘Aren’t they just different extremes along the same continuum?’” Aardvark CEO Tien Lee told
Endpoints News
in May 2024, after the company raised an
$85 million Series C
. “But they’re actually two different neurologic drives.”
After that Series C, Aardvark named former Vertex VP and ViaCyte medical chief Manasi Sinha Jaiman to the chief medical officer post. It also boosted its board with former Merck medical chief Roy Baynes and former Akamara Therapeutics CEO Susan Graf.
Tien and spouse Jane Wu Lee own the biggest piece of Aardvark, at 19.1%, according to IPO paperwork. Decheng Capital is the second largest shareholder at 17.2% and Vickers Venture Fund held 17.1% leading up to the IPO.
The small, 18-employee biotech had also tested another asset, ARD-501, for autism spectrum disorder. Its pipeline also includes an oral candidate for overactive bladder, a topical for inflammatory skin disorders and an abuse deterrent.