Eccogene, a Boston and Shanghai biotech working on an oral GLP-1 candidate with AstraZeneca, is considering an initial public offering early next year, CEO Jingye Zhou told Endpoints News.
Jingye ZhouThe company is gearing up for multiple mid-stage tests in NASH, a form of fatty liver disease now known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. The 40-employee biotech would likely raise a crossover round first and then eye a Nasdaq IPO in early 2025, Zhou said.
It’s currently hiring a chief financial officer to ramp up fundraising, he said.
“The second half of the year has the US election ongoing and we are also looking at the change of interest rates, so it really depends on the market conditions. But we think that early next year will be good timing for us,” he said. “Once the market is open for us to get listed, we will just go for it.”
After a glimmer of optimism around the new year, biotech’s IPO window has been largely shut, with only a couple listings so far this spring. But cardiometabolic startups, particularly for obesity, have been one of biotech’s hottest areas and several other companies are reportedly interested in going public, including Aardvark Therapeutics (according to the Financial Times) and Kallyope (according to Bloomberg). Last fall, another drug developer targeting obesity, Carmot Therapeutics, unveiled plans for an IPO but was scooped up by Roche for $2.7 billion.
An IPO would expand Eccogene’s R&D capabilities, though it currently has enough cash runway through its 2025 catalysts “and beyond,” Zhou said. After a potential Nasdaq entry, Eccogene could think about a dual listing in Hong Kong, he said.
The biotech disclosed an approximately $25 million Series B last June and then snagged $185 million in upfront cash through the deal with AstraZeneca, in which Eccogene licensed its Phase 1 oral GLP-1 receptor agonist ECC5004. The drug is expected to enter a Phase 2 trial in the second half of this year, Zhou said, as AstraZeneca looks to catch up with other obesity drugmakers.
Eccogene’s oral therapeutics pipeline contains a THR-β agonist known as ECC4703. It recently completed Phase 1 in the US, and a Phase 2 in NASH is slated for the first half of 2025, Zhou said. In March, the FDA greenlit the first-ever NASH treatment, opening the door for Madrigal Pharmaceuticals to market Rezdiffra. Madrigal’s treatment is also an oral THR-β agonist, which is meant to tamp down on liver fat, inflammation and fibrosis while also lowering cholesterol.
The startup is also working toward a Phase 2a study for another potential NASH candidate known as ECC0509. The plan is to pair ECC0509, a peripheral SSAO inhibitor, with ECC4703 to see if hitting two mechanisms can do a better job, Zhou said. The company could also test ECC0509 as a standalone for other inflammation and metabolic diseases.