Celyad completes $100.1 million IPO and placing to join CAR field

Belgian biotech company Celyad, formerly Cardio3, has completed a US Initial Public Offering (IPO) and European Union placing to raise $100.1 million gross which will fund a clinical trial program for a novel natural killer CAR cancer therapy, NKG2D.

Celyad aims to start one solid tumor trial per quarter once a Phase I initial acute myeloid leukemia (AML)/multiple myeloma (MM) efficacy signal is detected. This will potentially enable the NKG2D therapy into large, valuable indications. Equity research company Edison has said that adding the CAR AML and MM therapies take the indicative value of the company to 966 million euros ($1.08 billion). Solid tumor indications may add 519 million euros, or 53-60 euros per share, but are not currently included since they are preclinical, the Edison analysts note.

The placing changes the year-end 2015 cash forecast to 115 million euros. Celyad’s cash use in 2015 and 2016 depends on the range of clinical trials undertaken and will also be affected by short-term data, the analysts state. Cash on March 31, 2014, was 49.2 million euros after the 32 million euros gross raised in the first quarter of 2015. This was stated by management to be sufficient to at least the second half of 2016.