Massachusetts-Based Proteostatis Therapeutics IPO: Early Stage And Stiff Competition Keeps Us Cautious

Proteostatis Therapeutics Incorporated (Pending:PTI) expects to raise $50.0 million in its upcoming IPO. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Proteostasis Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutics to treat protein conformational diseases.

We previewed PTI on our IPO Insights Platform, which includes deals on deck and real-time alerts.

PTI will offer 3.85 million shares at an expected price range of $12 to $14. If the underwriters price the IPO at the mid-point of that range, PTI will have a market capitalization of $50.05 million.

PTI filed for the IPO on December 23, 2015.

Lead Underwriters: Leerink Partners and RBC Capital Markets

Underwriters: H.C. Wainwright & Co., and Robert W. Baird Inc.

Business Summary: Biopharmaceutical Company Developing Treatments for Protein Conformational Diseases

Proteostasis Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that is developing disease-modifying treatments for cystic fibrosis, as well as therapies for diseases originating from imbalances in the proteostatis network. These diseases have defects in protein folding, clearance and trafficking, and they include neurodegenerative, genetic, and retinal degenerative diseases.

The company’s lead product candidate is PTI-428, an oral treatment targeting cystic fibrosis. Proteostasis Therapeutics applied to the FDA to begin Phase 1 clinical trials in late 2015, and they expect to begin these trials in the first quarter of 2016. In January 2016, the company received Fast Track designation from the FDA for the investigation of PTI-428 for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, and it plans to see orphan drug status in the United States and the European Union. Proteostasis Therapeutics noted in its SEC filings that the market for cystic fibrosis treatments is projected to exceed $5 billion in those two markets.

Its other product candidates are in pre-clinical phase, and they include PTI-NC-733 for treating cystic fibrosis, PTI-130 for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Proteasome Activators (USP14) to treat neurodegeneration, and UPR Modulators for the treatment of protein conformational diseases.