NEW YORK – Pyxis Oncology said on Thursday that it has raised $168 million in an upsized initial public offering. The company sold 10,500,000 shares of common stock at $16 per share.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company also began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday under the symbol PYXS. Pyxis plans to use the funding to advance its preclinical pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates into the clinic, with plans to file investigational new drug applications for its two lead candidates, PYX-201 and PYX-202, in mid-2022.
BofA Securities, Jefferies, Credit Suisse, and William Blair are acting as joint bookrunning managers for the offering. LifeSci Capital is also acting as an underwriter for the offering. Pyxis is also offering underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 1,575,000 shares of common stock at the IPO price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.
Since its founding in 2019, Pyxis has raised $174 million in two rounds of financing. In March, Pyxis licensed two of its product candidates and an ADC drug development platform from Pfizer, PYX-201 that targets a novel tumor-restricted antigen in solid tumors and PYX-203, which is a DNA damaging agent for blood cancers.
In May, Pyxis and Alloy Therapeutics formed a joint venture, called Kyma Therapeutics, focused on developing immune-modulating antibodies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.