Shares of Bicara Therapeutics—a biopharmaceutical company backed by Indian billionaire Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw—surged about 42% from its IPO price in its first week of trading on Nasdaq as investors on Wall Street gave the cancer drug developer a strong vote of confidence.
The stock jumped 30% on its first trading on September 13 and continued to rally last week to close at $25.61 on Friday, giving Bicara a market capitalization of $1.3 billion. The Boston-based company raised $362 million from its IPO, the size of which was increased twice due to overwhelming investor demand.
“I am thrilled that an innovation conceptualized and pre-clinically developed in our labs in Bangalore has translated into promising clinical data and received such a strong endorsement from investors of its potential to be a key and perhaps a front line therapy in treating head and neck cancers,” Mazumdar-Shaw, non-executive director of Bicara, told Forbes Asia by email.
With a real-time net worth of $3.6 billion, Mazumdar-Shaw is one India’s richest self-made women. She is the founder and managing director of India-listed biopharma company Biocon, a key shareholder of Bicara. “Saving lives through innovative science has been our driving mission at Biocon and Bicara has certainly added value to this mission,” Mazumdar-Shaw said.
Bicara—which is run by Mazumdar-Shaw’s niece, Claire Mazumdar, as CEO—will use the proceeds from IPO further develop ficerafusp alfa (previously called BCA101), a bifunctional antibody to treat head and neck cancer, both for monotherapy and in combination with U.S. Foood and Drug Administration-approved pembrolizumab marketed as Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug made by New Jersey-based Merck.
Keytruda generated sales of $25 billion in 2023, according to Merck.
While Bicara remains in the red, posting a wider net loss of $29.5 million in the first six months of the year, compared with $16.7 million the year before, it has the backing of several marquee investors.
The company’s series C funding round in December secured $165 million from investors such as U.S.-based private equity firm TPG and healthcare hedge fund Braidwell. That latest fundraise came nine months after Bicara had garnered $108 million in a series B funding round, co-led by Red Tree Venture Capital and RA Capital Management. Other backers include Indian tech billionaire Azim Premji’s private equity firm, Premji Invest and Fidelity International’s investment arm, Eight Roads.…Read more by Gloria Haraito
