AbCellera Biologics Inc. has filed with US SEC for a proposed initial public offering of common shares. Terms of the offering are yet to be determined and announced.
For the purpose of calculating filing fees, AbCellera Biologics listed US $200 million as the proposed maximum offering size. (all dollar figures in US dollars unless otherwise noted)
AbCellera Biologics has applied to list its common shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “ABCL.”
AbCellera Biologics has raised over $172 million in equity and convertible debenture financings.
AbCellera Biologics investors include DCVC Bio, Viking Global Investors, OrbiMed, Baker Brothers, Peter Thiel/Founders Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, Harvard Management Private Equity Corporation, and the University of Minnesota.
Vancouver based AbCellera Biologics is a privately held technology company with an antibody discovery platform that searches, decodes, and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be used to prevent and treat disease.
AbCellera Biologics was founded by Dr. Carl L. G. Hansen, Ph.D. and Dr. Véronique Lecault, Ph.D. Dr. Hansen remains as the largest shareholder of the company, ahead of DCVC Bio, Viking Global Investors.
As of September 30, 2020, AbCellera Biologics had 174 full-time employees in Canada (158), the United States (5) and Australia (11), consisting of 81 scientists, 45 engineers and data scientists and 48 business professionals.
Recent Developments:
In March 2020, AbCellera Biologics entered into a discovery partnership agreement with Eli Lilly and Company, or Lilly, pursuant to which AbCellera Biologics will perform discovery research for a number of targets for Lilly that will result in antibodies for Lilly to develop and potentially commercialize. AbCellera Biologics received an aggregate of $8.0 million upon the satisfaction of clinical milestones by Lilly.
In March 2020, AbCellera Biologics completed an equity financing, raising an aggregate of $75.0 million in gross proceeds through the sale and issuance of Series A2 convertible preferred shares. In connection with this financing, AbCellera Biologics also entered into a senior secured credit agreement with OrbiMed which provided for term debt in an aggregate amount of $30.0 million. In July 2020, AbCellera Biologics repaid funds borrowed under the credit agreement facility in full and retired the credit facility with OrbiMed.
In April 2020, AbCellera Biologics entered into a multi-year agreement with the Canadian government’s Strategic Innovation Fund, or SIF. Under this agreement, CDN $175.6 million was committed by the Government of Canada. To date, AbCellera Biologics business has required only minimal expenditures for manufacturing activities. As part of its strategy to expand market by delivering a full solution through forward integration, AbCellera Biologics plans to add capabilities and infrastructure to support GMP manufacturing, and AbCellera Biologics intend to apply such SIF funding towards this goal.
In November 2020, AbCellera Biologics acquired Trianni for an initial purchase price of $90.0 million.
photo credit: AbCellera Biologics