Salspera, a clinical-stage cancer biotech developing live biopharmaceuticals to stimulate an immune response, announced terms for its IPO on Monday.
The Cambridge, MA-based company plans to raise $85 million by offering 5.7 million shares at a price range of $14 to $16.
Salspera aims to develop a new class of immunotherapeutics for the treatment of solid tumors, which it refers to as "live biopharmaceuticals," or genetically modified biological agents that have the capability of expressing select anti-tumoral agents within the tumor’s microenvironment. Lead program Saltikva is an attenuated strain of Salmonella Typhimurium that is non-toxic and orally administered, engineered to express the human gene interleukin-2, or Salmonella-IL2, which may increase populations of NK and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in tumor microenvironments and in the peripheral blood. The company is initially targeting pancreatic cancer, having conducted a Phase 2 trial for patients with Stage IV metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Salspera was founded in 2017 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol TKVA. Kingswood Capital Markets is the sole bookrunner on the deal.
