Apellis Pharmaceuticals, a portfolio company of early-stage venture capital fund Epidarex Capital, has completed its initial public offering (IPO).
Apellis began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “APLS” on Thursday, 9 November. Having raised gross proceeds of circa USD150 million from the offering.
Epidarex and its predecessor fund, MASA Life Science Ventures, were among the company’s earliest backers, funding the development of the company’s core technology shortly after its spin-out from the University of Pennsylvania. Sinclair Dunlop, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Epidarex, having served on the Board of Directors since the initial investment, will continue in this role.
Apellis’ lead product candidate, APL-2, has the potential to be a best-in-class treatment that may address the limitations of existing treatment options or provide a treatment option where there currently is none. APL-2 has already shown clinically meaningful activity in clinical trials for two distinct medical conditions – geographic atrophy in age-related macular degeneration (GA) and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH).
Epidarex is a leading investor in high growth life science and health technologies in under-ventured markets in the US and Europe.
