A pharmaceutical company that spun out of the University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer in 2004 raised nearly $82 million in an initial public offering July 18.
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, now based in Redwood City, California, is developing a series of drugs meant to combat the cancer stem cells that are responsible for driving the growth and metastasis of tumors. The company offered 4.8 million shares priced at $17 each, which was above the expected range.
"Their IPO is a tremendous accomplishment, and we're looking forward to seeing the drugs reach the market for the benefit of cancer patients worldwide."
Max Wicha, director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, was part of the initial research that led to the formation of the company and was a co-founder along with fellow U-M doctor Michael Clark, who has since moved to Stanford University.
Not including the IPO financing, OncoMed has attracted $187.1 million in equity financings, $1.2 million in grants and $137.5 in collaboration funding through partnerships with pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer HealthCare. OncoMed has agreements with the pharmaceutical companies that could lead to milestone payments that would pay more than $1 billion.
To date, including the IPO financing, the company has raised a total of $407.5 million.
As part of the licensing arrangement reached with the U-M when OncoMed was formed to commercialize Wicha and Clark’s research, the university retained an equity stake in the company that it continues to hold.
According to a press release from the University of Michigan, U-M Health System researchers reported 117 new inventions, were issued 28 patents and more than 50 license and option agreements were signed with industry partners during the previous fiscal year. There have been approximately 25 startup companies founded from those inventions since OncoMed launched.
OncoMed will be traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the name OMED. As of Tuesday at approximately 11:45 a.m. the company was trading at $27.60 per share.
Local pharmaceutical company Esperion Therapeutics held an initial public offering earlier this summer and raised approximately $73 million.
Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2