In the latest development in the ever-changing biotech IPO landscape, Telix Pharmaceuticals has withdrawn a proposed US listing on Nasdaq.
The decision to pull its IPO was announced on the day it was due to be listed, via a 14 June press release. Australia-headquartered Telix cited that its board did not move forward with its plans due to “current market conditions”, adding that the listing “was not predicated on the need to raise capital”.
The radiopharma specialist, currently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) since its IPO in its home country in 2017, was on course to raise a potential $232m via American depository shares (ADSs), according to a SEC filing.
Telix’s group CEO Christian Behrenbruch said: “While this is not our desired outcome, Telix’s strategic objectives must align with our duty to existing shareholders.”
The biotech company, which has a market cap of A$5.7bn, resumed trading on the ASX on 14 June after being halted the day before.
Telix first laid out its IPO plans in early January this year, after which its share price increased 42% until its listing U-turn. In that time, the company agreed to acquire QSAM Biosciences for $123.1m, along with buying CDMO IsoTherapeutics for a more modest $13.6m. Shares have also been bumped due to “positive therapeutic pipeline data readouts” and product approval submissions to the US Food and Drug Administration for kidney cancer agent TLX250-CDx (Zircaix) and prostate cancer agent TLX007-CDx.
The abandonement of plans for an IPO from a radiopharma biotech ccompany is at odds with the field’s recent growth. Venture financing for radiopharmaceutical drugs witnessed an increase of approximately 550% from $63m in 2017 to $408m in 2023 in terms of total deal value in the US, according to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Centre Deals Database.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Big pharma has made plays for the space in the past year too, with Eli Lilly, Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb inking deals ranging from $1.4bn to $4.1bn to acquire radiopharma specialists.
The number of biotech IPOs has been steadily decreasing after a boom in 2020 and 2021, although 2024 has seen an uptick in activity. Oncology biotech Boundless Bio raised $100m in an IPO in March this year, whilst Kyverna Therapeutics, Metagenomi and Alto Neuroscience have all made the jump too. CG Oncology generated the largest US pharma IPO so far this year, raising $380m in January. Telix’s U-turn, however, is an indication that the IPO comeback is still stuttering.
