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EPZM Epizyme scores latest biotech IPO victory to advance cancer pipeline
May 31, 2013 | By Ryan McBride


Epizyme ($EPZM) has become the latest IPO success story from a growing market for public debuts in biotech. The Cambridge, MA-based developer of targeted cancer drugs sold about 5.9 million shares for $15 per share, hitting the high end of its proposed $13-$15 per share price range and exceeding previous fundraising targets for the offering.

Jason Rhodes, the company's chief financial officer, said on Twitter that sales reached about 5.9 million shares on Thursday, meaning that the company sold 5.14 million shares in the IPO and underwriters dipped into most of their 771,300 over-allotment shares.

Epizyme, a 2011 Fierce 15 company, has raised about $88.5 million from the offering with plans to invest in advancing a young pipeline of small molecule drugs against epigenetic enzymes in the cancer field. Though the company has yet to report results from a Phase I study of its lead drug candidate, the executive team led by CEO Robert Gould has an aggressive strategy for rapidly advancing its compounds through development and a roster of corporate partners such as Celgene ($CELG), Eisai and GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK).


Three or four years ago, public investors might have balked at a company not quite finished with early-stage development of unproven compounds. Yet 2013 has been a comeback year for biotech IPOs, which are expected to easily dwarf the 10 completed maiden public offerings in 2012 and abysmal totals since the late-2008 financial meltdown. And Epizyme's predecessors in the cancer field have shown that molecularly targeted medicines that offer early proof of efficacy can indeed race through clinical development. So investors won't have to wait long to see how well the drugs work.

Epizyme's lead candidate, called EPZ-5676, entered Phase I development in September for patients with a lethal subtype of acute blood cancers known as mixed lineage leukemia (MLL). Celgene grabbed rights to the compound for outside of the U.S., with Epizyme retaining control of its domestic market. The compound targets DOT1L histone methyltranferase, which is part of a 96-member class of epigenetic enzymes.

Epizyme has banked on drugs against these HMT enzymes and so far the strategy has panned out on the fundraising front. The company's three venture rounds brought in $76 million, its deal revenue hit $120 million, according to an SEC filing, and now the IPO has exceeded $88 million.

Read more: Epizyme scores latest biotech IPO victory to advance cancer pipeline - FierceBiotech http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/epizyme-scores-latest-biotech-ipo-victory-advance-cancer-pipeline/2013-05-31#ixzz2UsQ2j0gk
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