Editor’s Note: On occasion, TiiCKER will highlight some of the latest company’s to join the ranks of publicly traded companies in a feature called “New to the Market.” New to the Market features companies who have recently gone through their initial public offering (IPO).
Acelyrin (Tii:SLRN) is is a Los Angeles area-based late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company – with additional operations in the San Francisco Bay area – focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring and accelerating development and commercialization of promising new drugs. Acelyrin priced its May 5 IPO of 30 million shares at $18 per share. As of market close Tuesday, May 9, the company’s share price was $24.69.
Its pipeline includes three drugs currently going through various phases of development, each of which is designed to treat different inflammatory diseases. To date, more than 300 patients – many for up to three years – have received izokibep, an antibody mimetic, interleukin-17A (IL-17A) inhibitor designed to overcome the limitations of monoclonal antibodies. The drug is designed to treat psoriatic arthritis and other conditions.
The company has two other drugs in the pipeline in early stages of development including one for treating thyroid eye disease and another for treating chronic urticaria, a condition that causes the body's immune system attacks its own tissues.
The company is led by experienced biopharma executives with track records of building strong, innovative and diverse teams across the healthcare industry.
Shao-Lee is founder and CEO of Acelyrin. According to the company, during her career as a physician, scientist and biopharma executive, Shao-Lee has been driven by a personal mission to put patients first while building innovative approaches to speed the development of life-changing therapies.
Shao-Lee previously served as the first chief scientific officer and head of research and development at Horizon Therapeutics (Tii:HZNP), a biopharmaceutical company. While at Horizon, she assembled and led a diverse team that delivered strong results, driving the transformation of Horizon from a specialty pharma to biopharma company. Achievements within R&D included nearly doubling the response rate for the company’s marketed growth driver and accelerating development and approval of the first therapy for thyroid eye disease, a vision-threatening autoimmune condition.
Major competitive treatments include Cosentyx, Taltz, Humira, Remicade, Enbrel, Cimzia, Simponi, Stelara, Tremfya, Xeljanz, Otezla and Orencia.
The company’s investor syndicate includes a number of well-known institution life science venture capital firms, notably OrbiMed.