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Diving overview:
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Metagenomi, a biotech startup working to identify new CRISPR enzymes for gene editing, has filed to go public.
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Metagenomics recently raised a $275 million Series B round with support from healthcare investors and pharmaceutical companies, including Novo Nordisk’s parent company and Bayer’s venture arm. The startup has also partnered with Moderna and Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
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The Emeryville, Calif.-based biotechnology company is one of at least three life sciences companies publicly planning an initial public offering so far this year. If the IPO is successfully priced, its performance could serve as an early barometer for the sector in 2024.
Dive Insight:
Only 19 biotech companies set their IPO prices in 2023, down from 22 the year before, and more than 100 in 2021, according to data from BioPharma Dive. Analysts at HSBC Innovation Banking, who released their 2023 report this week, found that most of last year’s biotech IPOs were “driven by late-stage, established assets.”
In contrast, metagenomics does not yet have any drug candidates in clinical trials. However, partnerships with Moderna and Ionis have created potential programs for primary hyperoxaluria, transthyretin amyloidosis, and heart disease. All of these experimental drugs employ an in vivo, or in the body, gene editing approach, based on the technology of his Metagenomi partners in mRNA and RNA delivery.
Metagenomics, co-founded by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, mines large datasets of microbial DNA to edit genes with the aim of improving techniques that drug developers are using to treat complex diseases. The plan was to find a new enzyme for The company said in a filing Friday that it mined billions of proteins in its database and estimated that “more than 20,000 new genome editing systems have been identified as a result.”
The company is also developing treatments for other diseases such as hemophilia A and CAR-T therapies, one of which is part of a partnership with Affini-T Therapeutics.
Metagenomics raised one of the largest funding rounds last year, closing an extended Series B in January 2023 with support from Novo Holdings, Catario Capital Management, and Symbiosis.
Other biotechs joining the 2024 IPO queue include cancer drug startup CG Oncology, which raised a Series F round in August, and Arvent Biopharma, which develops antibodies and drug conjugates.
This story originally appeared on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to his free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter.
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