Cambridge Startup’s Take Two at Public Debut is Off to a Slow Start

By T. Chakraborty, Ph.D.

Codiak Biosciences Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharma company headquartered in Cambridge, MA, focused on progressing the treatment of various diseases with substantial medical needs. The company is bringing to the market a new kind of exosome-based therapeutics that has the potential to change the healthcare industry. Back in April, when it first submitted paperwork to the SEC to pursue an $86 million IPO, it eventually withdrew from going through with it due to unfavorable market conditions.

On October 13th, the company announced its public offering of 5,500,000 shares, priced at $15 per share, for gross proceeds of a cumulative $82.5 million, before docking underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses. The above-mentioned shares are completely being offered by Codiak Biosciences. They have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase further shares of common stocks up to 825,000 at the initial price offered the underwriting discounts and commissions.

The shares began trading on October 14th at the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “CDAK,” and it started at $14.29 per share. However, it did not hit the proposed IPO price, and when the offering was closed on October 16th, 2020, it ended at $12.10 per share. The groups responsible for the offering and representing the underwriters include Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Evercore ISI, and William Blair. Wedbush PacGrow has been designated as the lead manager for the offering.

Codiak Biosciences

Codiak has created waves in the healthcare industry by leveraging the power of exosomes, which act as natural intercellular transfer mechanisms. Based on this, the company has built its proprietary engEx Platform, which focuses on expanding the acquired properties of exosomes into developing and producing one-of-a-kind therapeutic candidates. The company has already developed a pipeline of products with help from their engEx platform with exosomes being at the center of it and aims to use their therapies to treat oncology, neuro-oncology, neurology, neuromuscular disease, and other infectious diseases.

In June, it entered into a 2-year global research and option agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics to develop and commercialize new biologic therapies for up to five neuromuscular targets.

Related Article: Sarepta and Codiak Biosciences Join Hands to Tackle Rare Diseases Using Exosome-Based Therapeutics

References

1. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201013006142/en/Codiak-Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering

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Author

Tulip Chakraborty