Local life science startup Boundless Bio filed Wednesday to go public — the first San Diego biotech to do so this year.
It is the first initial public offering, or IPO, by a local life science firm in the past four months, according to industry trade group Biocom California.
After an unprecedented boom in venture capital activity in 2021, the market has slowed considerably in the U.S. with high interest rates and lingering supply chain issues. Recently, dealmaking has picked up, but investors are being more selective about how they deploy their money.
Boundless Bio is a clinical-stage oncology company developing a novel approach to block certain genes from morphing cells into tumors. It is working through clinical trials for its small molecule therapies that target extrachromosomal DNA — genetic material associated with certain cancers.
It has been detected in 14 percent of early-stage cancers and up to 40 percent of metastatic cancers, according to the company. These “oncogene amplified” tumors have proven difficult to treat using current therapies.
The company — just off Genesee Avenue and in the center of San Diego’s biotech cluster — is also aiming its therapy at patients whose tumors are not benefiting from existing approaches, such as molecular targeted therapies or immunotherapies.
Boundless Bio has a pipeline of three cancer drugs in the works, a diagnostic test to identify patients for its drug and a proprietary platform to investigate other potential cancer DNA targets.
The company did not disclose in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the proposed price of its shares or the amount of stock it will offer. It will trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “BOLD.”
Boundless Bio raised $100 million last year and was one of only a handful of local companies to fundraise a round of more than $100 million in 2023. Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of drug giant Bayer, led the funding round with RA Capital Management.
As of Dec. 31, the company has raised $253.5 million and has cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $120.8 million, according to the filing. Boundless Bio increased its cash flow by about $36 million from 2022 to 2023.
Last year, the company operated with a net loss of about $49.4 million — a roughly $3.5 million increase from the previous year. As of Dec. 31, Boundless Bio had recorded a deficit of $136.1 million.
Boundless Bio plans to use the proceeds from its IPO to further develop its cancer therapies and to advance its drugs through clinical trials. It did not disclose the timeline it expects the IPO funds to carry it through. The company did expect to have preliminary clinical proof of concept safety and antitumor activity data for its first drug in the second half of 2024.
Even though venture capital deals have slowed, life science companies like Boundless that promise clinical data within months — not years — are getting attention from investors.
There is still a lot of capital available and as a result, San Diego has seen some interesting deals in recent months, said Jay Lichter, managing partner of local investment firm Avalon Bioventures.
“Biotech IPOs are not liquidity events — they’re just financing in a public setting,” he said.
Lichter explained that there are very few big commercial life science companies here — excluding health care tool makers like Thermo Fisher and Illumina — and they’re not the pharmaceutical giants making drugs. Therefore, the big return for investors and the driver of San Diego’s biotech market comes from mergers and acquisitions. Although San Diego hasn’t recorded many life science IPOs in recent months, it has recorded a handful of acquisitions.
For example, in January Johnson & Johnson bought San Diego’s Ambrx Biopharma for $2 billion. Two weeks later, French pharma giant Sanofi purchased Inhibrx, including a promising drug therapy, for up to $2.2 billion.
In 2023, the U.S. stock market saw 154 IPOs, down 15 percent from 2022, which had 181 IPOs. That’s a far cry from the record number of 1,035 IPOs in 2021.
Last year, many of these public entrants were in the health care industry, including San Diego’s own RayzeBio, which went from a September IPO to a $4.1 billion buyout by Bristol Myers Squibb in December.
Boundless Bio’s IPO is underwritten by Goldman Sachs & Co., Leerink Partners, Piper Sandler and Guggenheim Securities.
