Phase 1 cancer biotech Artiva Biotherapeutics files for a $100 million IPO

Artiva Biotherapeutics, a phase 1 cancer biotech developing off-the-shelf natural killer cell-based therapies, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.

Artiva is leveraging a proprietary platform and manufacturing capabilities to generate a broad pipeline of off-the-shelf NK cell therapeutic candidates for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. The company's lead product candidate, AB-101, is an off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapy that is currently being studied in a Phase 1/2 trial with rituximab in patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Patient dosing was initiated in the first quarter of 2021, with initial monotherapy safety data expected in late 2021 and interim combination data with rituximab expected in 2022. The company is also developing AB-201 and AB-202, its first two chimeric antigen receptor-NK product candidates, for which Artiva plans to file INDs in 2022. 

The San Diego, CA-based company was founded in 2019 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol RTVA. Goldman Sachs, Cowen and Evercore ISI are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.