Scribe prices IPO: 8.58 million shares at $15 to advance CRISPR programs

Scribe prices IPO: 8.58 million shares at $15 to advance CRISPR programs

On July 23, Scribe priced its upsized IPO at 8.58 million shares at $15 each. The company expects gross proceeds of $128.7 million before expenses. Trading in SCTX on Nasdaq is scheduled to begin on July 24, with the offering expected to close on July 27. Scribe’s lead program is already in its first human study.

Scribe Therapeutics priced its upsized IPO at 8.58 million shares of common stock at $15 each. The company expects gross proceeds of $128.7 million before underwriting expenses. The offering is expected to close on July 27, subject to customary conditions. In Scribe’s preliminary filing dated July 2, the price and number of shares had not yet been specified.

In its S-1, the company said it plans to use the net proceeds, together with its existing funds, to support STX-1150, two other programs, and its ELXR/XE technologies. STX-1150 is being developed to produce a lasting reduction in LDL-C, commonly called bad cholesterol. The liver produces PCSK9, a protein that removes from cell surfaces the receptors responsible for taking up LDL-C from the blood. Suppressing PCSK9 leaves more of these receptors in place, allowing them to remove more LDL-C.

STX-1150 is delivered to the liver in lipid nanoparticles, which are fatty shells that carry the therapeutic cargo. The ELXR system places chemical marks near the PCSK9 gene and reduces its activity without changing the DNA sequence. Through this approach, Scribe aims to suppress PCSK9 for an extended period by regulating gene activity.

The company prospectus describes its first study in Australia, which may enroll up to 64 adults with elevated LDL-C and a risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Scribe expects to obtain data on safety, tolerability, and LDL-C reduction in the first half of 2027. In a study of a prototype in nonhuman primates, a single dose maintained an LDL-C reduction of more than 50% for two years.

BioPharma Dive describes Scribe as the first developer of gene-editing medicines to complete an IPO in more than two years. The offering price ties the advancement of the clinical STX-1150 program and earlier CRISPR programs to a public offering that the company expects to close on July 27.