Karyopharm Enters IPO Queue, Plots up to $80M Raise For Cancer Drug
Summary
Karyopharm filed a Form S-1 with the SEC late Friday outlining plans to raise up to $80 million through an IPO, hoping to capitalize on the wide open window for life sciences offerings and help push its lead drug, now known as selinexor, into at least two—and potentially four—mid-stage clinical trials next year.The Natick, MA-based biotech aims to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “KPTI.” According to its IPO prospectus, Karyopharm has raised about $100 million from investors to date.Karyopharm plans to use the cash to ready a big clinical push over the next year for selinexor, a drug candidate that is supposed to work by protecting the body’s natural tumor-suppressing proteins.Karyopharm plans to develop a pipeline of drugs with this approach to treat cancers in both humans and dogs, and to go after autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis as well.Selinexor has so far been tested in over 170 patients with a variety of blood cancers, but that work has been done in three early-stage trials, which were designed to assess the drug’s tolerability and whether it was doing its job of keeping the tumor-suppressing proteins in the nucleus.