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Neurological disease biotech Longboard Pharmaceuticals files for an $86 million IPO

February 19, 2021
LBPH

Longboard Pharmaceuticals, a phase 1 biotech formed by Arena Pharmaceuticals developing medicines for neurological diseases, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $86 million in an initial public offering.

Longboard Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel, transformative medicines for neurological diseases. It was formed in January 2020 by Arena Pharmaceuticals to advance a portfolio of centrally acting product candidates designed to be highly selective for specific G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The company's small molecule product candidates were discovered out of the same platform at Arena that represents a culmination of more than 20 years of GPCR research. Its lead pipeline candidate, LP352, is an oral, centrally acting, 5-HT2c superagonist that is being advanced in a multiple-ascending dose (MAD) portion of a Phase 1 clinical trial. Longboard expects to initiate a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for the treatment of developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs), including Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, among others, in the first quarter of 2022.

The San Diego, CA-based company was founded in 2020 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol LBPH. Longboard Pharmaceuticals filed confidentially on December 15, 2020. Citi, Evercore ISI, Guggenheim Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.