backed Bicara Therapeutics shares surge 46% in stellar market debut
Adds analyst comment paragraph 6, background throughout
Sept 13 (Reuters) -Shares of Bicara Therapeutics BCAX.O surged nearly 46% in their debut on Friday, giving the TPG-backed cancer therapy developer a market value of $1.29 billion in a sign of strong investor interest.
Its shares opened at $26.25, compared with the offer price of $18. Bicara raised $315 million by selling 17.5 million shares in its initial public offering, after increasing the size of its offer twice.
Two other drug developers, Zenas BioPharma ZBIO.O and MBX Biosciences MBX.O, also had smooth debuts on Friday, bolstering confidence for the biotech sector, which has seen some recent market entrants struggle.
Shares of Alumis ALMS.O and Artiva Biotherapeutics ARTV.O, which went public in recent months have been trading below their IPO price.
Bicara's lead drug, ficerafusp alfa, is in an early-stage study in the U.S. to treat a type of head and neck cancer in combination with Merck's MRK.N Keytruda.
"Bicara upsizing its IPO twice and pricing at the high-end definitely shows strong institutional and retail demand, possibly driven by confidence in its lead anti-cancer asset," said IPOX research analyst Lukas Muehlbauer.
Besides alternative asset manager TPG TPG.O which co-led Bicara's last funding round, its backers include Indian drugmaker Biocon BION.NS and investment manager RA Capital.
Proceeds from its offering and cash in hand will help Bicara fund its operations till first half of 2029, the biotech said.
Morgan Stanley, TD Cowen, Stifel and Cantor Fitzgerald were the underwriters.
Reporting by Vedant Vinayak Vichare and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo
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